Better With Three
by Darkelvoriplorellion Tyler
Summary: It would be just another series 1 re-write, if not for Lilithanadir, the Doctor's niece (so she claims). How would the Doctor and Rose's story be different if they had a companion who knew *exactly* where their relationship was going? Third in the Lilith!verse.
1. Autons in London

"Run." the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and they took off running. Pushing through the double doors, he opened the elevator where there was already someone waiting.

"Lilith?" Rose said in disbelief.

The girl grinned. "Sup, Tyler?" she said in her American accent. Lilith brushed a lock of her short brown hair out of her face as she assessed her friend. She was nowhere near hyperventilation. Keeping her cool, Rose Tyler for you.

The doors started to close but before they could, one of the mannequins reached its arm through the gap. The Doctor tugged on it furiously. Lilith brought her hand down on the plastic arm and it he was able to pull it off, letting the elevator doors close.

"Damn Autons." Lilith muttered. "I'd almost gone two months without incident."

"You've been here for two months?" the Doctor asked, with his eyebrows raised.

Rose stared at him in shock. "You pulled his arm off!" she exclaimed.

"Yep." He tossed her the arm. Rose fumbled with it. "Plastic."

"Very clever. Nice trick, Lil," she said, turning to Lilith. "Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

The Doctor frowned. "Why would they be students?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you said it. Why students?"

"'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students." Rose reasoned.

"That makes sense." the Doctor turned to Lilith. "She's making sense. Well done picking her."

"Thanks." Lilith and Rose snorted at the same time.

"They're not students."

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police."

The Doctor turned to look at her. "Who's Wilson?"

"Chief electrician." Rose answered. The doors opened.

"Wilson's dead."

Lilith put her arm on Rose's shoulder. "Sorry." She left the elevator.

Rose followed them out. "That's just not funny. That's sick!" She protested.

"Hold on," the Doctor said. "Mind your eyes."

"What's going on?" Rose asked, turning to her friend.

Lilith shrugged. "You just sorta go with it, you know?"

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, disabled the lift controls, and darted off with Lilith on his heels.

"Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there?" Rose demanded before following. "I said, 'who are they'?"

"Autons. They're made of plastic." Lilith explained. "Living plastic creatures."

"They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof," the Doctor added. "Which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He held up a small device. So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me."

"Now wait jus-" Lilith tried to protest.

"No, you two go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed." He shut the door behind him then, after a moment, opened it again. "I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"

"Rose." Rose said.

"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!" the Doctor slammed the door again.

"Damned twit." Lilith growled. "Listen Rose, you can't remember that I was here." She touched Rose's temple, then pressed a button on her large watch and disappeared in a flash.

Rose shook her head and ran off.

* * *

"There's Finch's." Jackie suggested. "You could try them. They've always got jobs."

"Oh, great." Rose muttered. "The butchers."

"Well, it might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation. You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!" She went into the other room. "I know she is Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim."

The cat flap rattled.

"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays."

"I did it weeks back!" Jackie called from her bedroom.

"No, you thought about it."

When she reached the door, Rose found the screws for the cat flap lying on the floor. Then, the flap moved. Rose opened it and gasped. It was the Doctor. She opened the door. There stood himself with Lilith standing behind him, her arms crossed and looking amused.

"What're you doing here?" the Doctor asked.

"I told you before. She lives here." Lilith said.

"Well, what do you do that for?" he asked Rose, ignoring Lilith.

"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job." Rose said pointedly.

"I must have got the wrong signal." the Doctor mused, buzzing his sonic. "You're not plastic, are you?" he rapped on her forehead. "No, bonehead. Bye, then."

Rose grabbed his arm. "You. Inside. Right now." She pushed the

Doctor into the flat. Lilith followed. "And what are you doing here?" she asked her. Lilith raised her eyebrows.

"I'm with him." She answered.

"Who is it?" Jackie yelled.

"Go grill him. I'll distract your mom." Lilith winked. "It's me, Jackie! I brought a guy who wanted to talk to Rose about last night! They'll just be a few minutes!"

"She deserves compensation." Jackie insisted as the Doctor walked past her bedroom.

"Ha, we're talking millions."

Rose's mum froze. "Um, ahem, I'm in my dressing gown."

"Yes, you are."'  
Lilith giggled. The Doctor shot her an odd look.

"There's a strange man in my bedroom."

"Yes, there is."

"Well, anything could happen."

Lilith shattered and she broke into laughter.

"No." the Doctor said and walked away.

"Well, that's rude." Jackie sniffed.

Lilith regained her composure. "That's… That's him. He's never really polite. Besides, Jackie, he's taken."

Jackie pouted and Lilith giggled again. She meandered off in the direction Rose and the Doctor had gone.

"It said on the news they found a body," Rose was saying.

The Doctor looked at his reflection in a mirror and frowned. "Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears."

"Satellite dishes." Lilith chuckled, looking over his shoulder.

He turned to her. "Why didn't you tell me they were that big?"

"You didn't ask." She shrugged.

"I want you to explain everything." The blond continued, oblivious to their conversation. The cat flap rattled.

"What's that, then? You got a cat?" the Doctor asked, brushing past Lilith.

"No."

The Auton arm flew out from behind the couch and grabbed the Doctor by the throat. Lilith shot over and tried to pry it off.

"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate."

Rose came in from the kitchen area with two mugs of coffee. The Doctor was still being strangled, but she just rolled her eyes. "He's not serious, Lil. I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand."

"Rose," Lilith said through gritted teeth.

The Doctor managed to throw the arm off. It stopped in mid air and grabbed Rose's face instead. The Doctor and Lilith pulled at it, pulling Rose down on top of the Doctor and they fell onto the coffee table and smashed it. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to get it off Rose, then jabbed the device into its palm. The fingers stopped flexing.

"It's all right," he said. "I've stopped it. There you go, you see? Harmless."

"Do you think?" Rose hit him with the arm.

"Ow!"

Lilith pulled the Doctor toward the door. "Come on, we've got the arm, we can get the signal."

"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off!" Rose called after them and followed them to the staircase.

"Yes we can." the Doctor said. "Here we are. This is me, swanning off. See you."

"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me."

"Ten out of ten for observation." Lilith muttered.

Rose caught her arm. "You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."

"No, we don't." Lilith said shortly.

"All right, then. I'll go to the police." Rose said as the three made it out of the building. "I'll tell everyone. You said if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."

"Is that supposed to sound tough?" the Doctor snorted.

"Sort of."

"Doesn't work."

"Who are you?" Rose asked for what seemed like the tenth time.

"Told you. The Doctor. This is Lilith but you already seem to know that."

Rose glanced at Lilith who waved cheerily at her. "Yeah, but Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor." he and Lilith answered in unison.

"The Doctor." Rose repeated.

"Hello!"

She snorted. "Is that supposed to sound impressive?"

"Sort of."

"Come on, then. You can tell me." Rose insisted, picking up her pace. "I've seen enough. Are you the police?

"No, We were just passing through."

Rose frowned. "'Passing through'? Lil's been here for months."

Lilith barked out a laugh. "I was only supposed to be here a few days. Good thing he's late, though. We would've missed the Autons."

Rose shook her head. "But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?"

"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you." the Doctor said, mockingly. "You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."

"It tried to kill me."

"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing."

"Bit rude there, Doc." Lilith muttered.

"This morning," He continued, "I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cuz you've met me."

"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you." Rose snipped.

The Doctor nodded. "Sort of, yeah."

"You're full of it."

"Sort of, yeah." Lilith chuckled.

"But, all this plastic stuff," Rose pushed on. "Who else knows about it?"

"No one." the Doctor said. "Just you, me, and my niece."

The frown seemed etched into Rose's face. "What, you two're on your own?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."

"Here we go," Lilith groaned. "The superiority complex."

"Oi!" the Doctor protested.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "I'm headed home. Explain this to her, Uncle. Rose Tyler isn't going to leave this topic alone."

"Okay. Start from the beginning." Rose said to the Doctor as Lilith jogged ahead of the other two. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her denim jacket as she approached the TARDIS.

"Hey, Old Girl." She said, pushing the door open.

'Hello, Dear One.' The ship hummed back. Lilith smiled at the endearment and at the knowledge that it was she the TARDIS was talking to, not her uncle. At that moment, the man in question came into the TARDIS with a brooding look on his face.

"What, no Rose?" Lilith asked.

"How do you know that girl?" the Doctor demanded, hooking the plastic arm up to the TARDIS.

"You were late," the young Time Lady said. "When you have to sit still for months, you tend to make friends."

The Doctor stepped back from the console and swore in Gallifreyan. "The signal's not strong enough. We need something better than an arm."

"Well, you can go out and find that 'something better'. I need some time on the TARDIS.

The Doctor didn't argue.

* * *

The Doctor strode calmly into the TARDIS holding a plastic head under his arm. Lilith's magazine, and jaw, dropped.

"Is that…Mickey Smith's head?"

The Time Lord proceeded to hook it up to the TARDIS, the way he did the arm. "Auton head. It spoke after I pulled it off the body. Did you know they could do that?"

Lilith shook her head. "But if that's Micks, then where's—"

Rose burst into the ship.

"Rose!"

She ran out.

The younger Gallifreyan sighed. "Even the best can't believe. They all have to do the obligatory circle, don't they?"

"It's going to follow us!" Rose shouted.

"Calm down, Tyler." Lilith said, hopping off the jump seat.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door," the Doctor boasted. "And believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute."

"Lilith, do you see this?" Rose breathed, looking around the TARDIS. "Are you seeing this?"

Lilith rocked back on her heels. "Um, yeah, Rose. I'm seeing it."

"You see, the arm was too simple," The Time Lord began. "But the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right." He turned to Rose. "Where do you want to start?"

Rose gulped. "Er, the inside's bigger than the outside?"

"Yes." the Doctor said.

"It's alien."

"Yeah."

"Are you alien?"

"Yes," the Doctor shifted. "Is that all right?"

"Yeah." Rose said immediately. She looked at Lilith. "You're his niece, yeah? Does that make you alien too?"

Lilith bit the inside of her lip and nodded. "I'd have told you, but would you have believed me?"

"No." Rose admitted. "So this is, what, your space ship?"

"It's called the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "T-A-R-D-I-S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

Rose trailed her eyes over the time rotor and console, landing on the decapitated Mickey-head. She started to sob.

"That's okay," he said. "Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

Lilith rolled her eyes.

"Did they kill him?" Rose choked. "Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"

"They're probably keeping him alive to maintain the copy." Lilith assured her. "Right, Uncle?"

The Doctor frowned. "I didn't think of that."

Rose glared at him. "He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?"

"Melt?" The plastic head was, in fact, melting on the console where it was attached by cables. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Lilith!"

"Got it!" Lilith shouted, rushing over to the other side of the console. She threw a few switches as the Doctor set the TARDIS in motion

"What're you doing?" Rose demanded.

The Doctor raced around the console. "Following the signal. It's fading."

"I've got it!" Lilith yelled. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there."

"Here we go!" The TARDIS landed, the Doctor and Lilith ran for the door.

"You can't go out there. It's not safe!" Rose yelled after them.

"Lost the signal," the Doctor sighed. Lilith leaned against the wall in defeat. "We got so close."

"We've moved." Rose said, studying the exterior of the TARDIS. "Does it fly?"

"Disappears there and reappears here." the Doctor barely glanced back at her. "You wouldn't understand."

"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose."

"It melted with the head." He bushed past the human girl. "Are you going to witter on all night?"

Lilith shook her head. "Rude."

"I'll have to tell his mother." Rose sighed. The Doctor turned and looked at Rose, confused. Rose glared back at him. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien."

"He might not be dead, Rose." Lilith tried to say.

"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey—"

"Yeah, he's not a kid." Rose interrupted.

The Doctor ignored her. "It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?"

Rose spluttered, "All right?!"

"Yes, it is!"

Lilith put her hand on Rose's arm. "He insults species when he's stressed, it's nothing personal."

Rose huffed and crossed her arms. "If you are an alien, how comes you sound like you're from the North?"

"Lots of planets have a north." the Doctor responded, automatically.

"And I s'pose lots of planets have an America too, then." Rose looked pointedly at Lilith.

The Time Lady shrugged. "Nah, I just spend too much time with my godfather."

"And what's a… police public call box?"

The Doctor's demeanor lightened. "It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise."

"Okay," Rose chuckled at the fond smile on the Time Lord's face. "And this, this living plastic? What's it got against us?"

"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect," the Doctor said. "Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

"Any way of stopping it?"

The Doctor held up a tube of blue liquid. "Anti-plastic."

"Anti-plastic." Rose repeated.

Lilith smiled, observing the two. The Doctor leaned slightly in conspiratorially. "Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it." He straightened up and walked off. "How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"Hold on." Rose said, following. "Hide what?"

"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?"

"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible." He stopped pacing and crossed his arms. Only then, did he notice the way that Lilith and Rose were looking at him. "What?"

The Doctor turned and looked at what Rose was staring at on the south bank, and then turned back. Lilith giggled behind her hand.

"What?" he looked back again. Lilith's giggles increased. "What is it? What?"

He turns around one more time and finally caught on to what the two girls were looking at. It was the London Eye.

"Oh." the Doctor grinned manically at Lilith and Rose. "Fantastic."

The three of them take off running. Lilith couldn't stop her giggles from turning into a full on laugh when the Doctor reached out and took Rose's hand as they ran.

"Think of it," the Doctor said. "Plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables."

"The breast implants." Rose added.

"Still," Lilith said. "We've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

Rose looked over the parapet and saw a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps. "What about down here?"

The Doctor exchanged looks with Lilith. "Looks good to me."

Lilith nodded and lifted her arm. "Because this will inevitably go wrong." She said with a grin and pressed a button on the large watch on her wrist. In a flash of light, she was gone. The Doctor and Rose ran down and the Doctor opened up the hatch. There was red light inside.

* * *

'GET IN THE TARDIS!' the Doctor's voice suddenly rang out in Lilith's mind. 'They found the anti-plastic! The Consciousness started the invasion! Get in the TARDIS!'

'Like hell.' She mentally growled back. The streets were chaos. Mannequins hobbled round with they're hands in gun mode, shooting at every other person they fixated on. Three brides were particularly focused on a familiar bottle-blond woman. "Jackie!" Lilith shouted. She grabbed the elder woman's wrist and sprinted as fast as she could away from the murderous trio.

"Lilith?" Jackie panted.

Once they were a good distance away, and around a corner, Lilith let go, but didn't stop running. "See you around, Jackie!" she yelled over her shoulder as she rounded another corner. Skidding to a stop, she caught her breath and pressed the button on her vortex manipulator. She materialized inside the TARDIS just as The Doctor pushed Mickey inside, followed by Rose.

"Lil-Lilith?" Mickey stuttered. "Lilith knows alien stuff too?"

"Lilith is alien stuff, Micks." Lilith said wit a wide grin. She waved cheerily at him. "Hello." The TARDIS landed and Mickey stumbled backwards and out the door. Lilith chuckled to herself as Rose exited the ship, dialing what she assumed was Jackie's number on her cell phone. Lilith heard Jackie's chatter on the other end and Rose laughed and hung up.

Rose ran over to Mickey, who was trying to hide behind a pallet. "A fat lot of good you were." She teased, trying to pull him to his feet.

"Nestene Consciousness?" the Doctor and Lilith stood in the doorway of the TARDIS. The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Easy."

"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me." Rose put her hands in her pockets.

"Yes, I would." the Doctor said. "Thank you."

"Really, Tyler," Lilith said. "Thanks."

"Right then," he continued jovially. "We'll be off, unless, er, I don't know, you could come with us." He said hesitantly. "This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."

"Don't." Mickey managed to say. "They're aliens. They're things."

Lilith snorted.

"He's not invited." the Doctor added. "What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere."

"Is it always this dangerous?" Rose asked.

"Yeah." The Doctor and Lilith said with matching smiles.

Rose took a deep breath. "Yeah, I can't. I've er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so."

The Doctor visibly deflated. "Okay. See you around." The two aliens disappeared into the TARDIS.

The Doctor trudged up the ramp and dematerialized the TARDIS. Uncle and niece stood in complete silence. The elder of the two turned to leave the console room but was stopped by the other roughly pulling levers on the console.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor demanded.

"You forgot our companion, Uncle." Lilith said simply.

"Have you gone deaf? She said no, Lilith."

"You didn't give her the information she needed to make the correct choice. You left out a very important bit about the TARDIS."

Said ship materialized ten seconds after it had left. Lilith shoved the Doctor towards the door.

She grinned and mouthed the words as the Doctor said them. The sentence that would change a universe.

"Did I mention it also travels in time?"


	2. To Watch it Burn Part 1

Rose ran into the TARDIS with a grin on her face, one that Lilith returned. "Glad to have you with us, girl."

"Right then, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said. "You tell me. Where do you want to go?"

"Backwards or forwards in time." Lilith added, spinning around the console. "It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

"Forwards." Rose decided.

"How far?"

"One hundred years."

Lilith laughed. "Oh, come on Tyler, you can do better than that."

"She's right, 22nd century London isn't all that different. It's a bit boring. Do you want to go further?"

"Fine by me." Rose said with a grin.

'New Rome?' The Doctor suggested telepathically. Lilith spun a wheel and flipped a few levers while the Doctor pumped what looked suspiciously like a bicycle pump and twisted a couple knobs. The TARDIS began to shake and the three travelers were forced to grab onto the edge of the console.

"Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside; it's the year 12,005, the New Roman Empire."

"You think you're so impressive." Rose teased.

"I am so impressive." The Doctor said, defensively.

"You wish." Lilith snorted.

"Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go." He shoved Lilith out of the way and went about setting the coordinates. "Hold on!"

The TARDIS shook and Rose clung to the console like her life depended on it. Lilith, on the other hand, was lit up like she was having the time of her lives. "YES!" she shouted. "Oh, but I've missed this!"

"Where are we?" Rose asked once the TARDIS had landed. The Doctor gestured to the door. "What's out there?"

He gestured again. Lilith lightly shoved Rose. "Go. Take a look."

She doesn't hesitate before walking out of the TARDIS and out onto what Lilith faintly recalled to be called Platform One. Lilith and the Doctor followed her out silently, letting their companion take in her surroundings.

Rose went down a flight of steps and a large shutter in the wall descended to reveal an orbital view of Earth.

The Doctor approached her. "You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5/apple/26. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day" he looked at his watch. "Hold on." The sun flared and turned red. "This is the day the Sun expands."

Lilith took her place at Rose's other side. "Welcome to the end of the world."

* * *

"Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for 15:39, followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite." A computerized voice announced over a loud speaker.

The Doctor, Lilith, and Rose walked along a corridor. "So, when it says guests, does that mean people?" Rose asked.

"Depends what you mean by people." Lilith answered.

Rose frowned "I mean people. What do you mean?"

"Aliens."

"What are they doing on board this spaceship? What's it all for?"

"It's not really a spaceship," the Doctor said. "More like an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn." He used his sonic screwdriver on a wall panel.

"What for?"

Lilith shrugged. "Fun." On the other side of the door was a large area with a few display cases and a view of space to the front and above. "Mind you, when he says 'the great and the good', what he means is, 'the rich'."

"But, hold on," Rose said. "They did this once on News round Extra. The sun expanding, that takes hundreds of years."

"Millions," The Doctor corrected. "But the planet's now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there?" he pointed out the window. "Gravity satellites holding back the sun."

"The planet looks the same as ever. I thought the continents shifted and things."

"They did," Lilith said. "And the Trust shifted them back. That's a classic Earth. But now the money's run out, nature takes over."

"How long's it got?" Rose asked.

The Doctor checked his watch again. "About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted."

"Is that why we're here? I mean, is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?"

"I'm not saving it." He said, leaning towards her. "Time's up."

"But what about the people?"

"It's empty. They're all gone. No one left." Lilith assured Rose.

Rose didn't take it like she expected. "Just me, then."

A blue-skinned person with golden slit eyes strode towards them. Probably the Steward, Lilith noted.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"Oh, that's nice, thanks." The Doctor said, sarcastically.

"But how did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's us. We're guests. Look, I've got an invitation." He pulled the psychic paper out of his pocket. "Look. There, you see? It's fine, you see? The Doctor and Lilithanadir Smith plus one. I'm the Doctor, this is Lilithanadir Smith, and she's Rose Tyler. She's our plus one. Is that all right?"

The Steward took a moment to regain his composure. "Well, obviously. Apologies et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy." He went over to a podium.

"The paper's slightly psychic." The Doctor explained for Rose. "It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time."

"Handy little trinket." Lilith added. "Great for party crashing."

"He's blue." Rose said to her friend.

"Yep," she responded. "You should see Mandalorians. They're orange."

Rose nodded, numbly. "Okay."

"We have in attendance the Doctor, Lilithanadir Smith and Rose Tyler. Thank you. All staff to their positions." The Steward announced. A bunch of small, blue people appeared. "Hurry, now, thank you. Quick as we can, come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honored guest; representing the Forest of Cheem, we have trees, namely, Jabe, Lute and Coffa."

A bark-skinned woman entered with two larger male escorts. A memory of Lilith's slipped through of something her mother had said about a tree called Jabe.

"There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next," the Steward continued. "From the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon."

Another blue alien entered the room. Mostly head and body, he was sitting on a sort of transport pod.

"Watch out for that one," Lilith whispered to Rose. "He spits."

"And next, from Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme."

"The Gift of Peace." Jabe said, approaching the trio with her two escorts. "I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather." She gave the Doctor a rooted twig in a small pot.

"Thank you." The Doctor said sincerely, handing the twig to Rose. "Yes, gifts. Er, I give you in return…" he patted his pockets, frantically.

"A cutting of his niece." Lilith interrupted. She handed Jab a few strands of her own hair.

"How… kind of you." Jabe said, cautiously. She moved on.

"A cutting of yourself?" The Doctor asked Lilith, she shrugged.

"Why not? What else do we have to give her? Air from our lungs?"

Rose chuckled. "Nutters, you two are."

The Steward wasn't done introducing the guests. "From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe." A large glass case barely made it through the doorway. It contained a giant humanoid head with straggly hair and squinting eyes. Lilith made a choking sound.

"Friend of yours?" Rose asked.

Lilith bit her lip. "Oh, the Face and I go way back."

"The Moxx of Balhoon." The Doctor greeted as said alien approached.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance." The Moxx said. "I give you the gift of bodily salvias." He spat and the saliva hits the Doctor in the face. Lilith and Rose snickered.

"Thank you very much." The Doctor said, wiping the spit off his cheek.

The black-robed group glided up.

"Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. I bring you cuttings from my companions." He pulled strands of hair out of the two girls heads.

One of the figures extended a large metal hand held out a metal ball. "A gift of peace in all good faith." It said.

"And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multiforms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O' 17." The Steward finished.

Two men hidden in top-to-toe hospital whites wheeled in a face in a piece of thin skin stretched in a rectangular frame. "Oh, now, don't stare. I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me. Moisturize me." One of her attendants used a pump spray on the skin. Lilith snorted, Rose looked appalled, and the Doctor looked as though he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

"Truly, I am the last Human. My father was a Texan; my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye." As Cassandra spoke, Rose slowly walked around her, getting a view from all angles. ("Humans." The Doctor sighed.) "Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg." A man brought in an ostrich egg. "Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils."

Lilith fought back her laughter. "Really?" she whispered.

Rose, by then, had walked around the back of Cassandra to see just how thin she wad, and a 50's juke box was wheeled in.

"And here, another rarity." Cassandra continued. "According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

One of the little attendants pressed a button, a 45 was selected and the strains of Tainted Love by Soft Cell ran out. Lilith couldn't contain her laughter any longer.

"Refreshments will now be served. Earth Death in thirty minutes." The Steward said.

Rose, overwhelmed by the all of the aliens, and ran out of the room. The Doctor went to follow her, but got intercepted by the tree. "Doctor?" The device she was holding flashed. "Thank you."

Lilith made to follow her uncle, but was distracted by the sight of the Face of Boe. She couldn't help herself; she went over to him. 'Hello.' She said telepathically.

'Hello, Lilithanadir.' The Face greeted. 'It has been too long.'

'For you, maybe, I saw you a few months ago. Right before I left.' Lilith trailed off.

The Face of Boe looked at her with understanding. 'The path ahead of you will not be easy, my girl.'

'I know, it's just… odd, you know? She barely knows me and I know her so well.'

'I do not even get to talk to her. I miss Rose.' He mentally sighed. 'But tell me, my girl, how are you traveling with them without tangling timelines?'

Lilith bit the inside of her cheek. 'I hid my memories of all the stories they told me about their adventures. I don't remember until the events come to pass. Everything is new for me.'

'Clever.' The Face of Boe complimented.

'Why, thank you.' Lilith thought with a grin. 'I should probably go. God knows what trouble the two of them have gotten into by now.'

'Farewell, my Lilithanadir.'

'Bye, Uncle Jack.'

* * *

The little assistants were wheeling the TARDIS away. "Oi, now, careful with that." The Doctor yelled. "Park it properly. No scratches." One of them handed the Doctor a ticket. It said on one side, 'Have A Nice Day'.

"You got the TARDIS toed?" Lilith said, shaking her head as she joined the Doctor. "For shame, Uncle."

"Rose?" the Doctor called through the door. "Are you in there?" He and Lilith joined Rose in the observation room. "Aye, aye. What do you think, then?" he asked, sitting across the ramp from her. Lilith plopped herself next to Rose.

"Great. Yeah, fine." Rose said. "Once you get past the slightly psychic paper. They're just so alien. The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em and they're alien."

"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South." The Doctor said.

"Where are you from?" Rose asked after a moment.

"Uh oh." Lilith muttered to herself.

The Doctor looked away. "All over the place." He said, dismissively.

"They all speak English." Rose pointed out.

"No, you just hear English." The Doctor leaned back on his arm. "It's a gift of the TARDIS. Telepathic field. Gets inside your brain and translates."

Lilith groaned at her uncle's stupidity.

"It's inside my brain?"

"Well, in a good way." He shrugged.

"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"

"It's not like the TARDIS can change your thoughts around, Rose. She just makes it so you can understand alien languages."

"Who are you, then, Doctor?" Rose asked, ignoring Lilith's assurances. "What are you called? What sort of alien are you?"

Lilith made a face. "Here we go."

"I'm just the Doctor." He responded, shortly.

"From what planet?"

"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!" he forced a laughed.

"Where are you from?" Rose demanded.

"What does it matter?" The Doctor shot back.

"Tell me who you are!"

The Doctor 's eye flashed. "This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me."

Rose opened her mouth to retort, but Lilith put a comforting hand on her shoulder. The Doctor got up, abruptly and walked over to the window.

"He doesn't like to talk about home." The young alien said quietly. "It's a painful topic, for the both of us."

Rose looked contrite as a computerized voiced announced, "Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth Death in twenty minutes." Lilith slid off the seat and went to comfort her uncle.

After a moment, Rose joined them. "All right. As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver." She took out her cell phone. "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit." She joked, lightheartedly

"Tell you what," the Doctor said, taking the phone apart. "With a little bit of jiggery pokery..."

Lilith chuckled and Rose smiled. "Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?"

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?"

"No, I failed hullabaloo."

He handed it back to her. "There you go."

Rose pressed the call button and wandered away. "Mum?"

Lilith slipped her hand into the Doctor's and squeezed it. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Don't give me that deflecting crap, Uncle Theta." The Doctor flinched at the name. "I know talking about… what happened doesn't bring up the happiest memories, but try not to blow up at our companion. Humans find it a bit off-putting, you know."

The Doctor made a face at his niece.

"No. I'm fine." Rose told her mum. "Top of the world."

Jackie said something on the other end, and then hung up.

"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill." The Doctor said.

"That was five billion years ago." Rose marveled, the sobered. "So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."

"You really are a bundle of laughs, Tyler." Lilith snorted.

Suddenly, the entire platform shook. The Doctor looked at Lilith with a smile on his face, one she returned.

"That's not supposed to happen."


	3. To Watch it Burn Part 2

The Doctor looked at Lilith with a smile on his face, one she returned.

"That's not supposed to happen." He said.

"Observation gallery?" Lilith suggested.

The three of them returned to the main observation gallery, Steward's voice came over the loud speaker. "Honored guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you."

They entered the room just in time for Lilith to catch a bit of what the Moxx of Balhoon was saying.

"Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario. I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multiverse—" Bad Wolf.

"That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe?" the Doctor asked as the tree joined them "Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

Jabe shrugged. "It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Do you know where the engine room is?" Lilith asked

"I don't know," Jabe answered, "But the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your wife and friend.

"She's not my wife." The Doctor immediately said. Lilith struggled to keep silent. If only they knew.

"Partner?"

"No."

"Concubine?"

"Nope."

"Prostitute?" she suggested after a moment of thought. Lilith had to bite her tongue to keep from cracking up. Rose shot her a dirty look.

"Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind?" Rose snapped. "Tell you what, you two go and pollinate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson." She started to walk away.

"Don't start a fight." The Doctor told her. Lilith linked her arm through his and he offered Jabe his other arm. "We're all yours."

"And I want you two home by midnight." Rose called after them.

"Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes." The computerized voice announced.

Fantastic.

* * *

"Who's in charge of Platform One?" the Doctor inquired. "Is there a Captain or what?"

There's just the Steward and the staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind." Jabe said.

"You mean the computer? But who controls that?"

"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."

The Doctor frowned. "But there's no one from the Corporation on board."

"They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic." The tree explained. "It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong."

"Unsinkable?" The Doctor looked at Lilith.

"If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate."

"You're telling me. I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable."

"He got a life boat," Lilith said. "I ended up clinging to an iceberg."

The Doctor got back to the point. "So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?"

"I'm afraid not."

He grinned at his niece. "Fantastic."

"I don't understand. In what way is that fantastic?" Jabe frowned.

"So tell me, Jabe," Lilith said conversationally. "What's a tree like you doing in a place like this?"

"Respect for the Earth." She responded.

"Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions."

"Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions."

Lilith laughed. "In case your share prices drop? I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land.

Jabe looked a bit miffed. "All the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."

Lilith raised her eyebrows. "Impressive."

The Doctor scanned a door panel marked 'Welcome to Platform One. Guide of Platform One Do You Need Assistance'. A keypad labeled 'Maintenance log in', then 'Access denied'.)

"And what about your ancestry, Doctor?" Jabe asked. "Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left." She paused. "I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right. I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry I am."

The Doctor looked away. Lilith put her hand on his arm, and the Doctor put his hand over hers. She sent him a wave of comfort. He got the door open.

They found themselves by a catwalk that ran through a series of large fans.

"Is it me or is it a bit nippy?" the Doctor said. "Fair do's, though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro." He scanned a panel. "Gotcha."

He pulls it off. A mechanical spider scuttles out and up the wall. "What the hell's that?" Lilith gasped.

"Is it part of the 'retro'?" Jabe asked.

"I don't think so. Hold on." The Doctor aimed his screwdriver at the spider, and then Jabe lassoed it.

"Hey, nice liana."

Jabe smiled. "Thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public."

Lilith elbowed her, playfully. "Don't worry, we won't tell anybody. So, who's been bringing their pets on board?"

"What does it do?" Jabe wondered.

"Sabotage." The Doctor said.

"Earth Death in ten minutes. Earth Death in ten minutes." The computerized voice announced.

"And the temperature's about to rocket. Come on."

The trio raced back through the maintenance tunnel. Back in the halls, they found smoke from a room is filling the corridor and a glare is coming through a small glass panel in the door. The little assistants had gathered around.

"Hold on. Get back." The Doctor said. He pointed the sonic at a panel and the tool buzzed.

"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising." The computer said.

"Is the Steward in there?" Jabe exclaimed.

Lilith wrinkled her nose. "You can smell him."

"Hold on, there's another sun filter programmed to descend." The Doctor ran off. Lilith followed him at top speed, a knot in her stomach. She had a feeling which filter it was.

The Doctor came to a stop outside another door and started sonicing the computer panel. "Anyone in there?" he called out.

"Let me out!" Rose yelled from the other side of the door.

"Oh, well, it would be you." The Time Lord muttered.

Lilith smacked him on the arm. "Open the door!"

"Hold on, Rose." The Doctor shouted. "Give us two ticks."

The panel beeped. "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising." Then, after a moment, it changed its computerized mind. "Sun filter descending."

"Just what we need. The computer's getting clever."

"Stop mucking about!" Rose yelled.

"I'm not mucking about. It's fighting back."

"Open the door!"

"Working on it, Tyler!" Lilith shouted.

She could sense Rose's panic. "The lock's melted!"

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending." The Doctor shoved the sonic into the wiring. "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."

"The whole thing's jammed. I can't open the doors. Stay there! Don't move!" he said.

Lilith could see Rose rolling her eyes. "Where are am I going to go, Ipswich?"

"Earth Death in five minutes." Came the announcement.

* * *

"The metal machine confirms." Jabe announced to the aliens in the observation gallery. "The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One."

"How's that possible?" Cassandra demanded. "Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturize me, moisturize me."

"Summon the Steward." The Moxx of Balhoon suggested.

"The Steward is dead." Lilith said.

Murmurs flew through the room. "Who killed him?"

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face." The trampoline woman accused.

The Face of Bow made an audible sound of protest. Lilith growled quietly and the Doctor shot her an odd look.

"Easy way of finding out." He said. "Someone bought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to master." The Doctor put down the spider that Jabe was scanning, and it scuttled off toward Cassandra before going to the black robed group.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. J'accuse!" Cassandra said.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it," he went over to the Adherents. Their leader tried to hit him, so he pulled of its arm. "A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are, an idea."

He pulled one of the wires dangling from the arm, and the Adherents all collapsed. "Remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker. Go on, Jimbo," he nudged the spider with his foot. "Go home."

It returned to Cassandra. "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed." Lilith tried very hard not to snicker at that. "At arms!"

Cassandra's attendants raised their spray guns.

"What are you going to do, moisturize me?" the Doctor asked, sarcastically.

"With acid. Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts; tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just as pretty face."

Lilith laughed sharply. "You're not even that. Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? How stupid's that?"

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous." Cassandra explained.

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money." the Doctor said, disapprovingly.

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Doctor. Me. Not that freaky little kid of yours." Cassandra hissed.

"Arrest her, the infidel!" cried the Moxx of Balhoon.

"Oh, shut it, pixie. I've still got my final option."

"Earth Death in three minutes." Announced the computer.

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead." Cassandra said. "My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? Burn, baby, burn.

"Then you'll burn with us." Jabe retorted.

Cassandra rolled her eyes and sarcastically said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders activate."

There was a series of explosions throughout the Platform. "Force fields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me." The trampoline chuckled. "Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings." Cassandra and her attendants teleported away.

"Heat levels rising." The computerized voice said.

"Reset the computer." The Moxx of Balhoon panicked.

"Only the Steward would know how." Jabe said.

Lilith stepped up. "No. I bet we can do it by hand."

The Doctor nodded. "Lilith is right. There must be a system restore switch. Jabe, come on. You lot, just chill."

They sprinted back towards the maintenance duct. Lilith looked at Jabe. "How do you run in that dress?"

"That's what you're focusing on now?" the Doctor asked, incredulously.

"It's a legitimate question." Lilith defended.

When they reached the ventilation chamber, the computer was saying, "Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes. Heat levels critical."

"Oh. And guess where the switch is." It was on the other side of the turning razor sharp fans.

"Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising." The Doctor pulled a breaker lever and the fans slowed a little, but it reset as soon as he let go of it. "External temperature five thousand degrees."

"Thanks for that." Lilith muttered. Jabe pulled the breaker and held it down.

"You can't," the Doctor protested. "The heat's going to vent through this place."

"I know."

Lilith took the lever. "I got this, Jabe. Just get the hell out of here, Jabe, you're made of wood." Hesitantly and against her will, Jabe rushed off. Lilith turned to face her uncle. "Now stop wasting time, Time Lord."

"Heat levels rising. Heat levels hazardous."

Back in Gallery 15, the windows began to crack.

"Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction." The computer said.

Random rays of deadly light lanced into the room.

Come on, Lil, Doctor. Please help me. Rose thought.

"Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical." Announced the computer.

Come on, Lil, Doctor. Please help me, the Doctor heard in his mind. He looked back at Lilith, confused, and then timed his run past the second fan.

"Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising."

"Hurry, Uncle!" Lilith yelled. "The lever is pushing back up!"

The computer did nothing to ease the tension. "Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five," The Doctor rushed past the last fan. "Four, three,

He dashed for the reset breaker. "Raise shields!" he yelled and pulled.

Lilith felt the tremor of the station as the shields were reset and the tremor of the timelines as the fixed point of the earth's death slotted into place. She grinned as the Doctor put his arm around her. "Let's not do that again, yeah?"

* * *

Rose and Lilith entered the observation gallery. Lilith saw the little blue people were gathered around the Moxx of Balhoon's transport pod. The glare must have fried him, Lilith thought.

The Doctor came into the gallery and goes over to the trees to check on Jabe. When he went over to the two girls, Rose hugged him. He looked surprised at first, but hugged her back. Lilith couldn't hide her grin, which confused the Time Lord.

"You all right?" Rose asked.

The Doctor gave her a tight smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm full of ideas; I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby." He smashed open the alleged ostrich egg to reveal a small device. "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed." He twisted something on the device.

A disembodied voice spoke. "Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces. Cassandra faded into existence. "Oh."

"The last human." the Doctor said with a glare.

"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, the, er," the skin struggled for words. "The Human Club."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "If you're human, that's the last thing anyone would want to be. People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them."

"It depends on your definition of 'people', and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries." Cassandra said smugly. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter." Creak.

"And creak?"

"And what?"

"Creak." He repeated. "You're creaking."

"What? Ah! I'm drying out!" Cassandra panicked. "Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature." the Doctor deadpanned.

Cassandra continued to beg. "Have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything."

"Help her." Rose said quietly.

"Everything has its time and everything dies."

"There's nothing we can do."

The only word that could describe the following sound is 'splat'. Cassandra ripped onto pieces that flew across the room. Lilith gagged as she flicked off a piece that had landed on the Doctor, who was expressionless. He walked off, leaving Lilith and Rose behind.

"Is he okay?" Rose asked.

Lilith shrugged. "These people were killed for no real reason. He may be gruff but he cares about these kinds of things, deeply. Besides, Rose, you nearly died."

"Don't remind me." The human groaned.

Lilith shot her a slight smile. "Come on, let's go back to the TARDIS. There's some ice cream left that calling our names."

"You go on head. I need a… human moment."

She nodded, understanding, and passed the Doctor on her way out of the gallery. She stopped to listen in on their conversation.

"The end of the Earth." Rose was saying. "It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves, no one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just…" she trailed off.

The Doctor held out his hand and she took it. "Come with me." He said.

* * *

Lilith sat in the console room eating her peanut butter ice cream, memories to the stories her mother had told her about the conversation that was taking place between her two companions out on the streets of London returning to their proper place.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time."

"What happened?"

"There was a war and we lost."

"A war with who? What about your people?"

"I'm a Time Lord, one of the two remaining. They're all gone. Lilith and I, we're the only survivors; left travelling on our own 'cause there's no one else."

"There's me."

He would tell her that traveling with them was dangerous and ask if she wanted to go home.

She'd shake her head, then get distracted by the smell of chips.

He'd laugh and agree to go get some with her.

He wouldn't be able to pay.

Her mother always joked about that, about the adventure on Platform One as 'the first date'. Lilith supposed it was. She had watched her uncle start to fall for an ordinary human girl and the ordinary girl start to fall for the last of the Time Lords.

One thing was for certain; everything was turning out fantastic.


	4. Thoughts of a Time Lady

Lilith had insisted Rose sleep a few hours before their next adventure, reminding the Doctor that their companion was human and needed sleep to function. This gave the young Time Lady a chance to reflect on what had happened during their little trip to Platform One.

The memories of bedtime stories about evil trampolines trickled back into her mind. It was an unsettling feeling, but one she knew she had to put up with. If she didn't, if she asked the Doctor to take her home or if she decided to leave…

Traveling with the man she called her uncle was fantastic. Brilliant. Molto bene. But it wasn't just the Doctor and Lilith anymore. They had a companion with them on the TARDIS. No more going days without rest, humans need to sleep. No more speaking in only Gallifreyan, Rose didn't know the language.

Lilith sighed. She _knew_ things were going to end up different. She knew years before that they would eventually pick up Rose. It couldn't be just the two aliens alone on the TARDIS forever.

Now, in a few hours, they were going to land in _Cardiff_.

Things were about to get a whole lot more complicated.


	5. Of Authors and Ghosts Part 1

The TARDIS jerked and shook as it flew through the time vortex. Lilith, as always, was having the time of her life despite the shaky issue with the ship.

"Hold that one down!" the Doctor yelled at Rose.

"I'm holding this one down!" She protested.

"Well, hold them both down!" Lilith shouted.

Rose tried to stretch across half the console. "It's not going to work!"

"Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting!" the Doctor snapped. "Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

"What happened in 1860?" Rose asked.

"Beats me," Lilith beamed. "Let's find out. Hold on, here we go!" She yanked down a lever and the Doctor set the coordinates. The ship whipped through the vortex towards their destination. As the TARDIS materialized, it gave one last jolt, throwing the Doctor, Rose, and Lilith to the floor.

They broke into laughter. "Blimey!" Rose choked out, getting up.

"Seriously, no kidding." Lilith chuckled. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I think so. Nothing broken. Did we make it? Where are we?"

The Doctor checked the monitor. "I did it. Give the man a medal." He said happily. "Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."

Naples?

"That's so weird." Rose said, and then smiled. "It's Christmas."

"All yours." the Doctor gestured towards the door.

Rose turned back to look at the Doctor. "But, it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you two." (The Doctor looked extraordinarily smug.) "You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still."

"Not a bad life, we have." the Doctor said softly.

Rose grinned. "Better with three. Come on, then." She dashed towards the door.

"Oi, oi, oi," he called after here. "Where do you think you're going?"

"1860." Rose said.

Lilith shook her head. "Not like that, you're not. Go out there dressed in a sweatshirt, you'll start a riot. Where'd she move the wardrobe room?" she directed the last question to her uncle.

"Through there," the Doctor said, pointing towards the corridor "First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"

Lilith grabbed Rose's wrist and dashed in that direction.

"Where are we going?" Rose asked as they ran under the stairs.

"Rose Tyler," Lilith said when they arrived at the fifth door. "Welcome to the Wardrobe." She dramatically pushed open the door.

Rose stepped into the room in awe. It was as vast as the console room, if not bigger, with the same organic design, but it was filled with racks upon racks of clothes from every era Rose could think of, and then some. "Blimey." She breathed.

Lilith grinned. "Better than your average closet, huh, Tyler?"

"You're telling me." Rose said, still looking around.

"The TARDIS probably already chose something for you. Ah, here we are." Lilith came out from the maze of outfits and handed Rose a pile of clothes.

"What about you?"

"A dress is a dress, no matter what planet or time you're in." Lilith motioned to her outfit. It was exactly the same that she had been wearing on Platform One, just violet instead of a bright orange. Looking down at herself, she grabbed a brown-checkered cloak and tried it around her shoulders with a green bow. "There. Now I'm dressed for the weather." She looked back over at Rose and grinned. "Someone looks amazing."

Rose smiled. "Love the cloak. Very Sherlock Holmes."

Lilith pretended to tip her hat at her friend. "Much thanks, Watson." The two girls laughed all the way back to the console room.

The Doctor looked up from where he was tinkering with the console and his jaw dropped when his eyes landed on Rose. "Blimey!" he gasped.

"Don't laugh." Rose giggled.

"You look beautiful," Rose grinned at him shyly and Lilith beamed behind her heand before him continued. "Considering."

"Considering what?"

"That you're human."

Lilith face palmed. 'Wimp. She looks gorgeous and you know it.'

'Doesn't change the fact she's human.'

'Doesn't change the fact you're a coward.'

"I think that's a compliment." Rose frowned. "Aren't you going to change?"

"I've changed my jumper. Come on." the Doctor pulled himself up.

Rose poked him with her umbrella. "You stay there." She said and swung it to point at Lilith. "You've done this before. This is mine." She opened the door and stepped gingerly out into the fallen snow.

The Doctor followed and Lilith closed the door to the TARDIS behind them. "Ready for this?" he asked, offering Rose his arm, which she accepted. Lilith threaded her arm through Rose's other. "Here we go. History."

* * *

The Doctor, Rose, and Lilith walked down a street while a choir sang 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'. They move on across the street where the Doctor bought a newspaper. "We got the flight a bit wrong."

"I don't care." Rose said.

"It's not 1860, it's 1869."

"I don't care."

"And it's not Naples."

"She doesn't care."

"It's Cardiff."

There we go. That stops Rose in her tracks. "Right."

"Hey, don't diss it." Lilith said, trying to lighten the mood. "Great things will happen one day in Cardiff. You'll see."

"Well, that's one way of looking at it." Rose shrugged.

A scream pierced the air.

The Doctor grinned at his two companions. "Now that's more like it!" He tossed the paper behind them and the three took off running.

The scream had come from a theater. They pushed their way through the fleeing crowd, fighting back the scared audience and into the auditorium. A blue gas entity was swirling around an old lady flying around the room. "Fantastic." the Doctor and Lilith continued to push themselves towards the stage as the lady collapsed.

"Did you see where it came from?" the Doctor asked the man on the stage.

"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he?" the man snaps. "I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

"What, you think we did this?" Lilith demanded.

Back in the audience, a man and a young woman picked up the boy of the old lady.

"Oi! Leave her alone! Lil, I'll get them!" Rose shouted.

"Be careful!" Lilith shouted back as the Doctor continued to interrogate the man in from of them.

"Did it say anything? Can it speak? I'm the Doctor, by the way, this is Lilith."

"Doctor? You look more like a navy."

"What's wrong with this jumper?" the Doctor demanded.

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Do you have to ask?"

The blue entity did one last circle around the auditorium and disappeared into one of the lanterns. "Gas!" the Doctor exclaimed. "It's made of gas."

'HELP!' Lilith thought she heard someone scream.

The Doctor turned to Lilith. "Where did Rose go?"

"Out to follow the man and girl who took the host."

He dashed out of the auditorium. Lilith gave the stranger an apologetic look before following the Doctor, with the man on her heels.

"Rose!" the Doctor shouted.

"What's wrong?" Lilith asked.

"She's been kidnapped."

"You're not escaping me, sir!" The man insisted. "What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"

"Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks. Oi, you! Follow that hearse!" the Doctor ducked into a nearby carriage.

"I can't do that, sir." Said the driver.

"Why not?"

The man stormed up to the carriage. "I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach."

"Well, get in, then. Move!"

The man got into the carriage and Lilith climbed up behind him. The driver cracked the whip and the carriage moved down the street.

"Come on, you're losing them."

"Everything in order, Mister Dickens?" asked the driver.

Lilith's eyes widened. "Dickens?"

"Let me say this first. I'm not without a sense of humor—"

"Charles Dickens?" the Doctor gaped.

"Yes." Said the man.

"The Charles Dickens?"

The driver glanced back. "Should I remove the gentleman, sir?"

"You're brilliant, you are!" the Doctor said with a wide grin. "Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?"

"A Christmas Carol?" Lilith offered.

"No, no, no, the one with the trains. The Signal Man, that's it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius."

"You want me to get rid of him, sir?" the driver asked again.

"Er, no, I think he can stay." Dickens said.

The Doctor continued on, mad grin locked on his face. "Honestly, Charles. Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."

"A what? A big what?"

"Fan." the Doctor repeated. "Number one fan, that's me."

"How exactly are you a fan?" Charles Dickens frowned. "In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"It means fanatic, devoted to," Lilith explained. "Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, did you have to put in that bit?"

"I thought you said you were my fan."

"Ah, well, if you can't take criticism." Lilith shrugged. "Forget about that. Come on, faster!" she yelled at the driver.

"Who exactly is in that hearse?" Dickens asked.

"Our friend." the Doctor answered. "She's only nineteen. It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger.

"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books? This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!"

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

The Doctor knocked on the door to the funeral parlor. Lilith could here two people having a hushed conversation on the other side before the door opened to reveal a young maid. "I'm sorry, sir. We're closed."

"Nonsense." Dickens said. "Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir." The maid started to close the door.

Dickens slammed it open. "Don't lie to me, child! Summon him at once."

"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master's indisposed."

A gas lamp behind her flared.

"Having trouble with your gas?" the Doctor noticed.

"What the Shakespeare is going on?" Dickens said quietly.

The Doctor pushed past the girl to the flaring gas lamp.

"You're not allowed inside, sir." She tried to protest.

"There's something inside the walls," the Doctor said. "The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas."

"Open the door!" Shouted a voice.

"That's her!" Lilith exclaimed.

"Please, please, let me out!"

The group ran down the corridor and the Doctor bumped into the man who had taken the old lady's body.

"How dare you, sir." The main said, admonished. The Doctor and Lilith just pushed past him. "This is my house!"

"Shut up." Lilith heard Dickens say.

"Let me out! Somebody open the door! Open the door!" Rose's voice came from the other side of the door to the chapel. The Doctor kicked the door in.

"I think this is my dance." He said and pulled Rose away from a deathly pale young man.

"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." Dickens said from behind Lilith.

"No, we're not. The dead are walking. Hi."

"Hi." Rose was breathing heavily. "Who's your friend?"

"Charles Dickens." Lilith told her, happily.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Okay. Less weird than the zombies here."

"My name's the Doctor." the Doctor addressed the zombies. "Who are you, then? What do you want?"

The male zombie replied with several voices, "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!"

The blue gas left the mouths of the two people and the corpses collapsed.

Lilith stared to the two dead people and dimly registered that her uncle had suggested everyone go upstairs for tea. She followed; a bit numbly, desperately trying to remember anything she may possibly know about the gas creatures and why they had just tried to kill Rose.

Gwyneth was pouring everyone tea. Lilith had to do her best not to think about how much the servant girl looked like her Aunt Gwen.

"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man." Rose hissed. Lilith saw the Doctor stiffen.

"I won't be spoken to like this!" The old man, Sneed, Lilith now knew, said gruffly.

"Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die!" Rose yelled. "So come on, talk!"

"It's not my fault. It's this house." Sneed insisted. "It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed," he corrected, seeing Dickens and Lilith's glares at him. "Started getting restless."

"Tommyrot." Dickens dismissed.

"You witnessed it! Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps."

Gwyneth placed the Doctor's cup on the mantelpiece beside him. "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it."

Lilith frowned. 'Is she… a telepath?' She mentally asked the Doctor.

'She's human, Lilith. Humans aren't telepathic.' Was it her imagination, or did the Doctor's eyes flick towards Rose?

"…Almost walked into his own memorial service." Sneed was saying. "Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy." Scoffed the author.

"Oh, Charles, you were there." the Doctor

"I saw nothing but an illusion."

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up," the Doctor told a taken back Dickens. "What about the gas?" he asked Sneed.

"That's new, sir." The old man said. "Never seen anything like that."

"That means it's getting stronger," Lilith said thoughtfully. "The rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

"What's the rift?" Rose asked.

"A weak point in time and space." the Doctor explained. "A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

Sneed nodded in understanding. "That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations." Dickens rolled his eyes and closes the door behind him as he left. "Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

Lilith, curious to his thoughts, followed the famous author.

Dickens took the lid off one of the coffins, and waves his hand in front of the dead man's face. Lilith watched from the doorway as Dickens searched the coffin.

"Checking for strings?" she asked.

"Wires, perhaps. There must be some mechanism behind this fraud." He said.

She pushed herself off the doorway. "My uncle shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry about him. But you've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gas creatures."

"I cannot accept that."

"Think about it. What does the human body do when it decomposes? It breaks down and produces gas. It's the perfect home for these gas things. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, like your driver and his coach."

"Stop it." Dickens pleaded. "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?"

"Not wrong." Lilith said gently. "There's just more to learn."

"I've always railed against the fantasists. Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, reveled in them, but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of specters and jack-o'-lanterns. In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, young lady? Has it all been for nothing?"

Lilith smiled at him. "Never believe that you have wasted your life. Just take what you know and use it to live what life you have left to the fullest. My father taught me that." She said. She turned around and returned to the parlor just in time to hear the last thing she expected come out of the Doctor's mouth.

"We're going to have a séance."


	6. Of Authors and Ghosts part 2

"We're going to have a séance."

And that is how Lilith found herself sitting in the living room around a table with an old man, a woman who looked like her aunt, her uncle, her best friend, and Charles freaking Dickens.

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town." Gwyneth said. "Come, we must all join hands."

Dickens stood. "I can't take part in this."

"Humbug, much? Come on, Charlie, open mind." Lilith tilted her head towards Dickens's chair.

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeezebox concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Now, don't antagonize her." the Doctor chided. "I love a happy medium."

"Oh, Rassilon." Lilith groaned.

Rose chuckled. "I can't believe you just said that."

"Come on, we might need you." The Doctor said. Dickens sits down between Rose and Lilith. "Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

Gwyneth took a breath to steady herself. "Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

That's when the whispering started.

"Can you hear that?" Rose questioned the author.

"Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly." Dickens insisted.

"But look at her."

"I see them." Gwyneth said, looking up. "I feel them." Gas tendrils drifted above their heads.

"What's it saying?" Rose asked.

"They can't get through the rift," the Doctor said. "Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through."

"I can't!" the girl cried.

"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link."

Then, after a moment, "Yes." Gwyneth whispered. Blue outlines of people appeared behind Gwyneth.

Dickens looked at the figures in shock, but Lilith looked at them with trepidation. "This can't be good."

"Great God! Spirits from the other side!" Sneed exclaimed.

"The other side of the universe." the Doctor said.

The figures spoke with the voices of children and Gwyneth spoke with them. "Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us."

"What do you want us to do?" the Doctor asked.

"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge." The Gelth responded.

"What for?"

"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction."

"But why?" Lilith questioned, not completely trusting the gaseous creatures.  
What happened?"

"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came." Said the Gelth.

"War? What war?" Dickens asked.

"The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

Lilith looked at the Doctor. She saw the way he tensed when the Gelth mentioned the Time War. She knew how he saw the aftermath; he believed the responsibility of fixing it all rested on his shoulders. Lilith knew that her uncle would agree to anything to help the Gelth, but she wasn't too sure.

"So that's why you need the corpses."

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again." The Gelth claimed. "We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."

"But we can't."

The Doctor looked at Rose, confused. "Why not?"

"It's not… I mean, it's not—"

"Not decent? Not polite?" he interrupted. "It could save their lives."

"She's right, Uncle," Lilith said. "If all they wanted was a physical form, why did they make the old lady kill her son? Why did they make her son try to kill Rose?"

"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through." The Gelth pleaded. "We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." The Gelth went back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapsed across the table.

"Oh my god, Gwyneth?" Rose jumped up and ran over to the girl's side. "Gwyneth, are you okay?

"All true." Dickens breathed. "It's all true."

'What was that about?' the Doctor asked, telepathically. 'They need help.'

'They possessed a body and Rose nearly died at their hands, forgive me if I don't want to offer them permanent residence.'

'They're the last, Lilith, like us. Because of the War, their kind is gone.'

'Being alone is not an excuse.' Lilith gave the Doctor one last disappointed look, and then joined Rose in fussing over the unconscious Gwyneth.

* * *

A little while later, Gwyneth was been laying on the chaise longue. Rose sat beside her while Lilith paced around the room. Sneed and Dickens were sitting down and the Doctor was leaning with his back against the wall

"It's all right." Rose told the servant girl. "You just sleep."

"But my angels, miss, they came, didn't they? They need me?"

"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival." The Doctor said.

"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." Rose snapped at him. He leaned his head back, exasperated. "

"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again." Sneed said. "What are they?"

"Aliens."

"Like foreigners, you mean?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there." He pointed up

"Brecon?" Sneed asked, confused. Lilith snorted.

"Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes. "

"Which is why they need the girl." Dickens added.

Rose spun to face everyone else. "They're not having her."

"But she can help." the Doctor insisted. "Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through."

"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." Dickens slurred.

"Good system." Lilith admitted, bitterly. "It could work."

"You can't let them run around inside of dead people!" Rose protested

"Why not? It's like recycling."

"Seriously though, you can't."

"Seriously though, I can."

A wave of frustration almost overwhelmed Lilith, frustration that wasn't hers. She looked at the Doctor questioningly, but he was to busy frowning at Rose.

"It's just…" Rose struggled for a word. "Wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death."

Lilith hesitated before speaking. "Rose is right, Uncle. The Gelth need to find hosts other than human corpses.

"You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying." the Doctor said. "They lost everything in that war, or have you forgotten what it was like?"

"Of course I haven't!" Lilith snapped. "But damage control is not our problem."

"They're dying."

"I don't care. They're not using her." Rose insisted.

"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked.

"Look, you don't understand what's going on." The blond said gently.

Gwyneth looked at her. "You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid."

Lilith sat next to her. "You're not stupid, Gwyneth. In fact, my Dad would call you pretty clever. It's just that you don't seem to grasp the fact that this could be dangerous. You call these creatures angels, but the thing is the difference between angels and demons is how much they have to lose. And the Gelth have nothing."

"It's true, that's why they need to be helped." Gwyneth said. "Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything." He told the servant girl.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me."

The Doctor seemed to make up his mind. "We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other." He walked into the other room. "Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

"That would be the morgue." Sneed answered.

"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Rose grumbled. Lilith raised her eyebrows at her.

Down in the morgue, the recently departed lay under white sheets.

"Urgh. Talk about Bleak House." the Doctor commented.

"The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed," Rose said. "'Cuz I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869."

"Time's in flux, Tyler, changing every second." Lilith said. "Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that." She snapped. "Nothing is safe, remember that. Nothing."

"Doctor," Dickens spoke up. "I think the room is getting colder."

"Here they come." Rose muttered.

A Gelth came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under a stone archway. "You've come to help. Praise the Doctor, praise him." It said in it's multiple, child-like voices.

"Promise you won't hurt her." Rose demanded.

"Hurry! Please, so little time." The Gelth pleaded. "Pity the Gelth."

"Don't pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living." Lilith quoted under her breath.

The Doctor shot her a look 'Really?' "I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer." He said aloud. "Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"

"My angels. I can help them live." Gwyneth breathed.

"Okay, where's the weak point?" the Doctor asked.

"Here," the Gelth answered. "Beneath the arch."

"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth repeated. She stood under the arch, inside the Gelth.

Rose rushed forward and took Gwyneth's hands. "You don't have to do this."

Gwyneth just shook her head and Lilith gently pulled Rose away from her.

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" the Gelth cried.

"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!"

"Bridgehead establishing." Said the translucent alien.

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It is begun. The bridge is made." Gwyneth opened her mouth and multiple blue gas creatures flew out. Lilith was overcome with a sense of dread. She shared a terrified look with Rose. "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend."

The blue apparition turned a flaming red. It's voice deepened and hardened. "The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said that you were few in number." Dickens cried.

"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The dead bodies began to get up.

"Oh Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough." Sneed begged. "Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you!"

"Mister Sneed, get back!" Rose yelled.

A corpse grabbed Sneed and snapped his neck. Rose looked away quickly as the Doctor pulled her behind him. A Gelth zoomed into Sneed's open mouth.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." the Doctor said.

Lilith sneered at him. "Is this a bad time to say 'I told you so'? Because I freaking told you so!"

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us." Sneed's body growled. "We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead. "

"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" the Doctor called.

"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." Said the red Gelth. Dead Sneed backed Rose, Lilith, and the Doctor up against a metal gate.

Dickens backed against the door. "Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so—" a corpse lumbered past him and he fled.

The remaining trio hid behind the metal gate, where the corpses couldn't reach them. "Give yourself to glory." The demonic creature demanded. "Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you," the Doctor yelled. "I pitied you!"

"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all it's flesh."

"Not while I'm alive." He growled.

"Then live no more."

The corpses advanced, reaching their hands through the gaps between the metal bars of the gates.

"But I can't die. Tell me I can't." Rose pleaded. "I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?"

"I'm sorry." the Doctor said.

"But it's 1869. How can I die now?"

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here."

Lilith focused on the time lines, watching them shift. They couldn't die, not there. Not before all the adventures she'd dreamed of having. She had to live, to get back to her Doctor. Her father. Her mother.

"We'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose said.

"Always." Lilith said, biting her lip.

Rose turned to the Doctor. "Together?"

"Yeah."

She took his hand.

"I'm so glad I met you." the Doctor said.

"Me too."

Lilith wiped away a tear. At least they had made it this far. At that moment, Dickens ran in.

"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame; turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!"

"He's gone insane."

"Turn it all on. Flood the place!"

Understanding dawned on the Doctor's face. "Brilliant! Gas!"

"What, so we choke to death instead?"

Lilith lit up. "No, he's right. The Gelth are gaseous."

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host." The Doctor explained. "Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!"

The corpses turned away from the Doctor and Rose, and started shambling towards Dickens. "I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."

"Plenty more!" the Doctor crowed, ripping a gas pipe from the wall. Screeches, along with the gas, filled the room as the Gelth left the corpses.

"It's working." Dickens said.

The Doctor rushed out of the alcove, Lilith and Rose behind him. "Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels."

Gwyneth lowered her arms. "Liars?"

"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"

"I can't breathe." Rose choked.

"Lilith, get her out."

"I'm not leaving her." Rose protested.

"And there's no way in hell I'm leaving you." Lilith added.

Gwyneth looked at the Doctor with sorrow. "They're too strong."

"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people? None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."

"I can't send them back." Gwyneth said. "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place. Hold them here. Get out." She took a box of matches from her apron pocket.

"You can't!" Rose yelled, she rushed forward, but Lilith and the Doctor held her back.

"Leave this place!"

The Doctor gripped Rose's arms. "Rose, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!"

Lilith dragged Rose towards the stairs. With one last look at look at Gwyneth, she stopped resisting and Dickens followed the two out of the morgue. The two girls and the author raced down the hallways.

"This way!" Dickens coughed into the handkerchief he was holding over his mouth. Lilith spared a glace at Rose, who had nothing to lessen the gas she was inhaling. They made it out of the house and had barely gotten into the street when the building exploded behind them.

Lilith ran to the Doctor's side and fussed to double check that he was okay. Rose approached them slowly. "She didn't make it." She guessed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "She closed the rift."

Dickens sighed. "At such a cost. The poor child."

"I did try, Rose," the Doctor promised. "But Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes."

"How do you mean?"

Lilith looked away. "I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."

"But she can't have." Rose protested. "She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?"

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Dickens said.

"She saved the world, a servant girl, no one will ever know."

"We'll know." Lilith said, putting her arm around her friend's shoulders.

"Right then, Charlie boy," The Doctor said as the group reached the TARDIS. "I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked the author.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own." He decided. "I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital."

"You've cheered up." the Doctor noted.

"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them."

Rose glanced at Lilith before addressing Dickens again. "Do you think that's wise?"

"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth."

"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic." the Doctor said.

"Bye, then, and thanks." Rose shook Dickens's hand then kissed his cheek.

Dickens smiled. "Thank you, but I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

Lilith grinned, "You'll see. In the shed."

"Upon my soul, young lady, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?"

"Just a friend passing through."

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books, do they last?"

"Oh, yes!" Lilith said with enthusiasm.

"For how long?" Dickens asked.

"Forever." the Doctor said. "Right. Shed. Come on, Rose, Lilith"

Dickens frowned. "In the box? All three of you?"

"Down boy," the Doctor growled. "See you."

"Doesn't that change history?" Rose asked as the walked over to the console. "If he writes about blue ghosts?"

"In one week it's 1870, and that's the year he dies." Lilith said, somberly. "Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story."

Rose looked at Dickens on the monitor. "Oh, no. He was so nice."

"But in your time, he was already dead." the Doctor shrugged. "We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise. Lilith?"

"To the vortex we go." Lilith said, pulling a lever with a grin and the TARDIS dematerialized. It smoothly slipped into the time vortex.

With that, Lilith remembered everything her mother had told her about the Doctor and Rose's trip to nineteenth century Cardiff. Any doubts she had about what she saw in the morgue were erased.

It seemed that the real adventure here was just beginning.


	7. London's Wake Up Call Part 1

The TARDIS gave a small jolt as it landed. Lilith bounced into the console room. "Where'd we land?"

"London, 2005." the Doctor answered. "Rose's running home to talk to her mother." He made a face.

"Humans and their domestics, huh, Uncle?" Lilith teased.

"Oi!" Rose protested, but she did so with a smile. She pushed the door to the TARDIS open. The two aliens followed her out into London. "How long have I been gone?" she asked.

"About twelve hours." the Doctor said, leaning against the TARDIS. Lilith rolled her eyes at his smugness.

Rose laughed. "Right, I won't be long. I just want to see my mum."

"What're you going to tell her?"

"I don't know. I've been to the year 5 billion and only been gone, what, twelve hours?" Rose said sarcastically. "No, I'll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen's. See you later. Oi," she pointed at Lilith. "Don't you let him disappear!"

Rose laughed and jogged off as Lilith saluted with a wink. She shoved her hands in the pockets of the denim jacket she wore over her dress. "She was a good choice."

"Clever and quick. The two most important traits in a companion and she's got 'em." the Doctor said almost jokingly. Lilith murmured in agreement. A poster on a cement pole caught her eye.

The mirth in her eyes faded into horror as she read what was on the paper. She swore in Gallifreyan and took off, shoving the poster into the Doctor's chest as she passed him.

It was a missing person flyer.

The Doctor raced after her.

Lilith burst into the Tyler flat to fin Jackie hugging Rose. Several different kinds of missing person posters littered the table. "He got it wrong. It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months. You've been gone a whole year. Sorry."

* * *

Lilith was leaning against the window, looking at the young boy spray painting words on the TARDIS. The last words she wanted to see at the moment. Bad Wolf.

Jackie had gotten over her shock at seeing Rose again and had made her way into the 'furious' stage. The Police had been called and the elder Tyler was yelling at her daughter. "The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own! I thought you were dead, and where were you? Traveling with Lilith! What the hell does that mean, traveling? That's no sort of answer!" she turned to the officer. "You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Traveling!"

"That's what we were doing." Rose said.

"When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another."

"I meant to phone." The younger Tyler insisted. "I really did. I just I forgot."

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here. I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

The Doctor, who was clearly sick of the yelling, cut in. "Actually, it's my fault. I sort of er, employed Rose as my companion."

Lilith cringed. Bad choice of words.

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" the officer asked.

The three time travelers answered in unison. "No." The Doctor looked as though he found it humorous, Rose was more exasperated, and Lilith was barely containing her laughter at the thought.

Oh if they only knew.

"Then what is it?" Jackie demanded, marching up to the Doctor. "Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, two girls vanish off the face of the Earth! How old are you then? Forty? Forty-five? What, did you find them on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a Doctor." He insisted, clearly insulted.

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate!" Jackie smacked the Doctor across the face, hard. Lilith was at his side in a moment.

"Damn, that sounded like it hurt." She said, checking to see if he was all right. The two Tylers had retreated into the kitchen.

"It did." He muttered. Glaring at the officer, he marched out of the flat. Rose poked her head out of the kitchen and looked at Lilith. She motioned towards the door and the two girls left to meet the Doctor on the roof.

"How's the face?" Lilith asked as Rose jumped up onto a ledge. The Doctor waved her off, non-committedly.

"I can't tell her. I can't even begin." Rose sighed. "She's never going to forgive me. And I missed a year. Was it good?"

"Middling." the Doctor shrugged.

"You're so useless."

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?"

Rose hesitated. "I don't know. I can't do that to her again, though."

"Well, she's not coming with us." Lilith said, taking a seat on the other side of the Doctor.

"No chance." Rose laughed.

"I don't do families." the Doctor said.

"You've got Lilith sitting right here." Rose pointed out.

Lilith shrugged. "He's just upset 'cuz he got slapped."

"Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."

Rose chuckled at that. "Your face."

"It hurt!" the Doctor protested.

"Wimp." Lilith poked him in the arm.

After a pause, Rose asked, "When you say nine hundred years?"

"That's my age."

"You're nine hundred years old."

"Yeah."

Lilith snorted. "Liar. You've been traveling for nine hundred years. You were twice my age when you started."

"And how old are you?" Rose questioned.

"A hundred." the Doctor answered for her.

Lilith sat up a little straighter. "One hundred and twelve, thank you very much."

Rose jumped down and walked over to the edge of the roof. "Every conversation with you two just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist."

"Well," Lilith said. "There's—"

A deep horn cut her off; and a spaceship trailing black smoke passed overhead and headed for the city. It missed Tower Bridge, wove around St Paul's, then, with a nasty back-fire and a splutter, it dove for the Thames, taking out a bit of Big Ben on the way down. The clock towed chimed once and the spaceship crashed into the river. The Doctor, Rose, and Lilith watched a plume of black smoke rise into the air on the horizon.

"Oh, that's just not fair."

The Doctor laughed and grabbed Rose's hand, dashing off. Lilith followed with a bright grin on her face.

* * *

'Army? Navy?' Lilith wondered, watching the men in red berets patrol and block off the streets.

'Nope, UNIT.' the Doctor told her.

'The people you worked with in your third incarnation? Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and those guys?'

'Yep.' "It's blocked off." He said aloud.

"We're miles from the center." Rose panted, out of breath from running. "The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down."

"I know. I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!" the Doctor said, excitedly.

"Did you two know this was going to happen?" Rose asked.

"Nope." the Doctor and Lilith replied together.

"Do you recognize the ship?"

"Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you." Rose muttered.

"I bet you are." the Doctor grinned. "This is what we travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of us."

Rose finally caught her breath. "Well, let's go and see it. Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

The Doctor shook his head. "Better not. They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top."

"Yeah, but yours looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice." Rose argued.

"You'd be surprised. Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching."

'Or you just don't want UNIT to know you're here.'

'Quiet, you.'

"So history's happening and we're stuck here." Rose sighed.

"Yes, we are."

Lilith shrugged. "We could do what humans always do, watch it on TV."

The Tyler flat, as it turns out, was packed already with people from the Estate. Jackie had pulled Lilith aside; intent on grilling her to get details about the 'travels' the trio had been on, Rose was curled up on the couch, trying not to talk to people, and the Doctor sat a foot away from the TV, trying to hear what the announcer was saying over the sound of chatter throughout the flat.

"So where was it you 'travel' to?" Jackie probed.

"Everywhere, Jackie. The things we saw? Fantastic. Beautiful views and gorgeous stars. But it was a bit dull sometimes. We spent Christmas in Cardiff, actually. Holed up with an amazing author. A regular Charles Dickens, he was." As she spoke, more people arrived. "Guests, talk to you guests, not me. I'm gonna check on my uncle."

She walked over and sat next to the Doctor who was staring intently at the screen. The man on the news announced that they had found a body in the wreckage.

"Did you recognize the ship at all? It looked a bit Rennin, didn't it?"

The Doctor frowned. "Renn? The level seven planet by Clom?"

Lilith shrugged. "Like I said, just a bit. Where do you think they took the body?"

The channel changed to a cooking channel. Lilith looked over to see the Doctor wrestling the remote away from a toddler. She laughed.

The Doctor changed the channel back just as they announced the answer to Lilith's question. The Albian Hospital.

"Worth checking out?" Lilith elbowed the Doctor. "We can stop by the TARDIS and I'll grab a perception filter."

"Let's go." The two got up and headed out of the flat.

"And where do you think you're going?" Rose had caught them.

"Nowhere." the Doctor said. "It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

"Right." Rose crossed her arms. "So you're not going to Albian Hospital to check out the alien body they dug out of the Thames?"

"May have crossed our minds." Lilith murmured.

"Nothing to do with us. It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing." The Time Lord said.

"Angle of descent, color of smoke, everything. It's perfect." Lilith agreed.

"So?"

"So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own." the Doctor's grin was slowly growing. "That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand."

"You don't need us. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum." Lilith suggested.

"Promise you won't disappear?"

"Tell you what." Lilith took off her necklace and handed it to Rose. "TARDIS key. It's about time you had one. I'll get my own later. See you around, Tyler?"

Rose smiled and slipped the necklace on. "Stay out of trouble."

"No promises."

Rose walked back inside and the Doctor and Lilith headed back to the TARDIS arm in arm.

"So," the Doctor said, failing to sound nonchalant. "You gave her your key."

"Saved you the embarrassment. I saw you reaching for your pocket." Lilith accused. "Besides, imagine how it would look to Jackie. You giving the keys to you home to her daughter?"

"S'not the same."

"Yeah, it's the same. You're into her and you know it."

The Doctor scoffed and unlocked the TARDIS. "Not the same." He repeated, more to himself than to her. Lilith dashed up to the console and pulled a lever, starting the dematerialization.

The duo danced around the console, flipping switches and turning knobs and such. The TARDIS started to shift a bit, tilting to the side. Lilith tossed the Doctor a rubber mallet, which he used to hit the console a few times. The ship righted itself and landed.

The Doctor eased his way out of the crowded storage closet that they had landed in, Lilith right behind him. He used the sonic to unlock the door. He opens it to a room full of soldiers.

Soldiers who immediately pick up their rifles and aim them at him. Lilith stayed hidden behind her uncle.

A scream tore through the air. A scream that sounded suspiciously like that of her Aunt Tosh, Lilith thought to herself.

"Defense plan delta! Come on, move, move!" the Doctor shouted and led the UNIT soldiers out of the room and down the hallways. Lilith followed just a tad bit behind. They burst into the lab where the scientist, who incidentally was her Aunt Tosh, was hiding behind a table.

"It's alive!"

"Spread out." the Doctor ordered. "Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown."

"My god," Tosh whimpered. "It's still alive." Lilith and the Doctor rushed to her side.

"Do it!"

A bit of blood was running down the side of Tosh's forehead. "I swear it was dead." She said.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything." the Doctor threw out. "What does it look like?" From somewhere in the lab, there was a sound of metal clattering. "It's still here."

He got up and gestured to a soldier outside the door to come in and kneel by Toshiko. He walked over to where the sound had come from. Something clanged and he dropped to his knees and crawled the rest of the way.

'What is it?'

"Hello." the Doctor said quietly. The creature ran out from its hiding place. It was a pig on its hind legs wearing a spacesuit. "Don't shoot!" the Doctor shouted.

The pig continued to run and squeal out into the corridors where another soldier shot it.

"What did you do that for?" the Doctor demanded. "It was scared!" Lilith joined him as he knelt next to the dead pig. "It was scared."

Lilith helped him lift up the body and carry it back into the mortuary where Tosh was waiting. They placed it on one of the tables.

"I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth." Tosh said.

"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up it's brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb."

"It must've been terrified." Lilith whispered. "They've taken this poor animal and turned it into a joke."

"So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien. Aliens are faking aliens. But why would they do that?" Tosh looked up. "Doctor?"

He was gone.

Lilith rolled her eyes. "He does that. Sorry, Tosh." She ran after him.

* * *

"All right, so I lied. I went and had a look." the Doctor said as Rose rushed into the TARDIS. "But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look."

"My mum's here." Rose whispered.

"Jackie! Micks!" Lilith exclaimed with forced cheerfulness.

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic."

"You ruined my life, Doctor." Mickey yelled. "They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

"You see what I mean?" the Doctor said. "Domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name." Mickey spat.

The Doctor turned around. "Ricky."

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name."

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

Lilith shoved the Doctor. "Uncle! Chill!"

Jackie looked from Mickey to Rose to the Doctor and left the TARDIS. Rose called after her, "Mum, don't!" the looked at the Doctor. "Don't go anywhere." She turned to Mickey. "Don't start a fight!"

"What about you, then, Lil?" Mickey said, ignoring the Doctor's glare. "You called him your uncle?"

"My dad's brother. That's the definition of 'uncle'." Lilith said.

Mickey looked at her for a moment. "So you're an alien too."

"Surprise?"

"That was a real spaceship." Rose said, as she came back into the ship.

"Yep." the Doctor said.

"So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

Mickey, who was looking over their shoulder at the monitor, spoke up. "Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert."

"Good point! So, what're they up to?"


	8. London's Wake Up Call Part 2

"So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey asked the Doctor who was under the console fussing with wires.

"Ricky." the Doctor said around the sonic screwdriver in his mouth.

"Mickey." The boy corrected.

"Ricky," the alien repeated. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

Mickey though about it for a moment. "I suppose not."

"Well, shut it, then."

Mickey wandered over to the other side of the console where Rose was playing with some dials. Lilith laid down on her stomach next to the hole in the grating and plucked the screwdriver out of the Doctor's mouth.

"Being rude to the boy won't make her like you any more."

The Doctor grunted.

"And purposefully messing up his name doesn't win you any cool points either."

"I need the sonic." He said, completely ignoring his niece. Lilith shrugged and gave him the screwdriver, pushing herself up off the floor.

"So, er, in twelve months, have you been seeing anyone else?" Rose was asking Mickey.

"No." he replied.

"Okay."

"Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you."

"Right."

After a moment of silence, Mickey asked, "So, now that you've come back, are you going to stay?"

Lilith didn't miss Rose's eyes dart down to where the Doctor was hidden. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards. "I don't—"

"Got it! Ha, ha!" the Doctor crowed, jumping up from under the console. Rose and Lilith were immediately at his side. "Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on."

He whacked the monitor. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a slingshot round the Earth before it landed."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"It means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down," the Doctor explained. "Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived; they've been here for a while. The question is: what have they been doing?"

Lilith frowned, looking at the monitor as it showed the trajectory again. She elbowed the Doctor out of the way and started changing the channels. "Let's see if we can find the news again. We can catch up on what we missed."

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.

"All the basic packages." Lilith answered.

"You get sports channels?"

The young Time Lady rolled her eyes. "Yes, I get the football."

"Hold on," the Doctor said, stopping Lilith's channel flipping. "I know that lot."

On the screen, a group of people was being escorted through a building. A woman's voice was saying, "It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."

"UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"How do you know them?" Rose questioned.

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but Mickey beat him to it. "'Cos he's worked for them." Lilith and the Doctor looked at the human, shocked. "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead."

Lilith frowned. "Did you even look for a list of the living?"

Rose, deciding to ignore the oncoming argument, cut it short. "If you know them, why don't you go and help?"

''Cuz you've regenerated half a dozen times since then.'

The Doctor shrugged. They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. And I'm not to anxious to shove Lilith out there either. I'm going undercover. And er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to?" Mickey demanded as they walked towards the exit.

"The roads are clearing. We should probably check out that spaceship." Lilith suggested. They walked out of the TARDIS and straight into a helicopter spotlight.

"Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." A man announced from the helicopter.

Lilith crossed her arms and looked at Rose. "I bet you five bucks this is your mother's doing."

Police cars and armored personnel carriers surrounded them. Mickey bolted. ("Coward." Lilith muttered.) Jackie appeared, coming out of the building.

"Rose!" she shouted, trying to make her way through the crowd of UNIT beret-wearing soldiers. Some of the grabbed Jackie to keep her away "Rose!"

"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest." Helicopter man told them. They did so.

"Take me to your leader!" the Doctor said with a grin.

Lilith just rolled her eyes as the trio was herded to a black car.

"This is a bit posh." Rose said, getting in. "If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago."

Lilith smirked. "We're not being arrested; we're being escorted."

"Where to?"

"Where'd you think?" the Doctor said with glee. "Downing Street."

Rose laughed. "You're kidding."

"I'm not." The grin reached from ear to large ear.

"Ten Downing Street?" Rose marveled.

"That's the one."

"Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing Street? How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right." The Doctor shrugged. "Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed."

"Now they need you?" Rose guessed.

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge." Lilith said. "And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?"

"Apart from him." The Time Lord frowned.

"You think you're so impressive." Rose grinned

"I am so impressive." He insisted. "Who's the Prime Minister now?"

Rose shrugged. "How should I know? I missed a year."

When they reached their destination and got out of the car. The Doctor smiled and waved for the cameras outside Number Ten. Lilith pulled him away from all the attention and into the building.

"Oh, my God." Rose breathed.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." The junior secretary handed a card to the Doctor. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance."

"I don't go anywhere without her." the Doctor said.

"You and the Collector are the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? She'll have to stay outside."

He frowned. "The Collector?"

The secretary motioned to Lilith. The Doctor looked at her and she shrugged. "No clue what he's talking about." She said.

The Doctor shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Rose's staying with me."

"Look," said the secretary. "Even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."

Rose put her hand on the Doctor's arm. "It's all right. You go."

"I'll stay with Rose." Lilith added.

A woman in a pink suit jacket approached. "Excuse me. Are you the Doctor?"

"Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?" the secretary almost whined.

"I just need a word in private." Suit Jacket insisted.

The Doctor sighed. "Don't get in any trouble." He told Rose and left.

"You haven't got clearance. Now leave it." The secretary growled at the woman, then he turned to Rose and Lilith. "I'm going to have to leave you two with security."

"It's all right. I'll look after them." Said Suit Jacket. "Let me be of some use. Walk with me." Rose glanced at Lilith, as if for permission. Lilith nodded and they followed the woman. "Just keep walking. Don't look round. Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North."

They stopped by the staircase

"This friend of yours, and you," Harriet looked at Lilith. "You're experts, is that right? You know— you know about aliens?"

"Why do you want to know?" Rose asked.

Harriet started crying. Lilith raised an eyebrow, but Rose comforted the woman. She took them upstairs and into the cabinet room as she explained what she saw. "They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside!"

"It's all right," Rose said. "We believe you. It's, it's alien."

"They must have some serious technology behind this." Lilith mused. "If we could find it, we could use it."

She and Rose searched the room. Rose opened a different cupboard and a man's body fell out. "Oh, my God! Is that the—?"

At that moment, the secretary came in. "Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander—" he saw the body and stopped. "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

"Oh! Has someone been naughty?" said someone from the doorway. It was a large woman with short blond hair.

"That's not possible. He left this afternoon." The secretary said. "The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!"

"And who told you that, hmm? Me." Grinned the woman. She reached up to her hairline and pulled back a zipper that was attached to her forehead, filling the room with an eerie blue light. Peeling off the face of the woman like a sheet of plastic, the real being began to emerge.

When it was fully out of the skin suit, the alien grabbed the secretary with three-taloned hands, lifting him up and slamming him against the wall.

Lilith grabbed Rose's hand and, for the second time that day, swore in her native language. "Tyler, we're in big trouble."


	9. Big Trouble on Downing Street Part 1

Lilith grabbed Rose's hand and, for the second time that day, swore in her native language. "Tyler, we're in big trouble."

Suddenly, the alien was covered in an electrical current. It dropped the secretary as it screeched in pain.

"What's going on?" Rose asked, wide eyed in shock.

"Beats me. Run!" Lilith dragged Rose, who in turn dragged Harriet Jones, out the door and down the hall.

"No, wait!" Harriet said. "They're still in there. The emergency protocols, we need them."

"We don't have ti—" Lilith started to protest, but Rose and Harriet had already darted back. "Humans." She growled under her breath as she heard Harriet let out a scream.

The two human women ran down the hall back to where Lilith was. Rose took Lilith's hand and pulled her into a sprint. Slamming a door behind them, they ran through another doorway. The alien, however, simply smashed through the oak door and continued the chase.

The next door was locked, Rose twisted the handle furiously, banging against the door, but it was no use.

Ding.

The lift door opened just as the alien went past, revealing the Doctor. "Hello!" he said with a smile, distracting it long enough for Lilith, Harriet, and Rose to slip though an open door.

It led to a large sitting room. "Hide!" Rose shouted. Lilith pulled her behind a cabinet and Harriet hid behind a screen.

Lilith could hear the door open and she shivered when the alien, Slitheen, she suddenly recalled, spoke. "Oh, such fun. Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins; come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips."

Rose darted behind the curtains. Lilith fiddled with her perception filter, making it impossible for the Slitheen to see her. She poked her head above the cabinet just as two more Slitheen came in the room.

"My brothers." The original one greeted.

"Happy hunting?" Asked one of the others.

"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear." Said the third. "I can smell an old girl. Stale bird, and brittle bones."

"A young one, just ready to run."

"And another ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin. Fresh enough to bend before she snaps."

The first Slitheen had made its way to the curtain where Rose was hiding, she started to pull it back.

"No! Take me first!" Harriet shouted, jumping out on her hiding place. "Take me!"

At that moment, the Doctor burst in with a fire extinguisher and sprayed the two newcomers. "Out, with me!" he yelled. Rose pulled the curtain down over the Slitheen by her and ran over to the Doctor. Lilith switched off the perception filter and joined them, along with Harriet. "Who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." Harriet introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

The Doctor uses up the last of the fire extinguisher and they ran out of the room. "We need to head to the Cabinet Room."

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens." Harriet said.

"Harriet Jones, I like you." the Doctor grinned.

"And I like you too."

They made it to the Cabinet Room just as the Slitheen caught up with them. The Doctor grabbed a bottle from a side table and stood in the doorway, holding the sonic against it. "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off!"

The Slitheen took a few steps back into the outer office.

"Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens." Harriet breathed.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes. I got that, thanks."

"Who are you, if not human?" One of the Slitheen asked.

"Who's not human?" Harriet asked.

"We're not human." Lilith said.

"I'm human." Rose pointed out.

"He's not human?"

The Doctor looked back at the trio. "Can I have a bit of hush?"

"Sorry."

He turned back to the three green aliens. "So, what's the plan?"

"But he's got a Northern accent." Harriet whispered to Rose.

"Lots of planets have a north." She replied and Lilith giggled.

"I said hush," the Doctor said. "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

"Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen race?" One Slitheen repeated.

"Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname." Another said. "Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

"So, you're family."

"A family business." The second Slitheen reasoned.

"Then you're out to make a profit," the Doctor guessed. "How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?"

"Ah, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

"Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up." The green alien accused.

"Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it." He held the bottle out to Harriet, who was still clutching the red briefcase.

"You pass it to the left first." She said.

"Sorry." He handed it to Lilith.

"Thanks." She muttered.

The Slitheen raised its talons. "Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose suggested.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street." the Doctor said. "Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." He lifted a small panel by the door and pressed a button. Metal shutters crashed shut across the windows and doors. "Installed in 1991, three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

Lilith sighed. "Meaning we can't get out."

* * *

The Doctor dragged the secretary's body into a small storeroom, where the former Prime Minister was also laid out. "What was his name?"

"Who?" Harriet asked.

The Doctor motioned to the secretary. "This one. The secretary or whatever he was called."

"I don't know. I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."

"Ganesh." Lilith remembered aloud.

"Right, what have we got?" the Doctor took out the sonic. "Any terminals, anything?"

"No," Rose said, searching under a desk. "This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"Too thin?" Lilith guessed. "They're big ugly things. They need to fit inside big humans."

"But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?"

The Doctor was the one to explain. "That's the device around their necks. Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller."

"Excuse me, people are dead!" Harriet said, appalled. "This is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry. You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him."

"Well, that's a strange friendship."

"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before," the Doctor frowned. "Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Ha! Hardly." Harriet scoffed.

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

Rose sat up. "Hasn't it got, like, defense codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?"

"You're a very violent young woman." Harriet said. Lilith snorted.

"I'm serious. We could."

"Well, there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

The Doctor stopped sonicing random items and turned around. "Say that again."

"What, about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

Rose muttered, "Like that's ever stopped them."

"Exactly," she said. "Given our past record, and I voted against that, thank you very much, the codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important." Lilith said, seriously.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted." Harriet paused. "Listen to me. I'm saying 'Slitheen' as if it's normal."

"What do they want, though?" Rose wondered.

"Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion." Lilith noted.

"Right," said the Doctor. "They don't want Slitheen World They're out to make money. That means they want to use something, something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?"

The Doctor smiled at her. "You're very good at this."

"Thank you."

"Harriet Jones." He said again. "Why do I know that name?"

Rose's phone beeped. "Oh, that's me."

Lilith's went off. "Me too."

Harriet frowned. "But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?"

"He zapped it. Super phone." Rose explained.

"Well, mine's alien tech." Lilith shrugged.

"Then we can phone for help." Harriet turned to the Doctor. "You must have contacts."

"Dead downstairs, yeah."

Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "It's Mickey."

"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy." the Doctor groaned.

"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all."

Lilith showed the Doctor the screen of her phone. Mickey had sent them a photo of a Slitheen. "Oh."

She immediately dialed Mickey's number and put it on speaker. "Micks, are you okay?"

"No, no, no, no, no. It wasn't just an alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

"I could've died!" Jackie cried on the other end.

"Is she all right, though?" Rose asked. "Don't put her on, just tell me."

"Ricky?" the Doctor cut in. "Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?" Mickey demanded.

"Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you."

* * *

'You're having Mickey, a regular human citizen, hack into UNIT's website?'

'Yes. Problem?'

'Guess not.'

The Doctor frowned at Lilith 'Why are you worried?'

'Who said I was worried?' she asked.

'You're projecting.'

It was Lilith's turn to frown. 'I'm not the one who's worried, Uncle.' She tried to, but couldn't, miss the Doctor's eyes flick towards Rose, who was staring intently at the phone on the table.

"It says password." Mickey said.

The Doctor plugged the phone into the conference phone speaker. "Say again."

"It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo," the Doctor told him. "Two F's, one L."

"So, what's that website?" Jackie questioned.

"All the secret information known to mankind." Mickey answered. "See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Micks, you were born in the dark."

"Oh, leave him alone, Lil." Rose sighed.

"Thank you. Password again."

"Just repeat it every time," the Doctor said. "Big Ben - why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them." Harriet handed him a glass of alcohol.

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon." He dismissed. "You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on red alert." Rose mused. "What would they do that for?"

"Oh, listen to her." Jackie scoffed.

"Well, at least I'm trying."

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind." The blond woman said over the phone. "Because since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets, I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappeared off the face of the Earth."

"I told you what happened." Rose protested.

"I'm talking to him. 'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor, and maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?"

"I'm fine." Rose insisted. Lilith saw the Doctor expression harden.

'Don't you dare let that crazy woman get to you.'

"Is she safe? Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer?"

"We're in." Mickey said, clearly having taken back the phone.

The Doctor kicked back into action. "Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

"What is it?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." He listened for a moment. "It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?"

"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating."

On the other end on the line, a doorbell rang. "Hush!" the Doctor said.

"That's not me. Go and see who that is."

"It's three o'clock in the morning." Jackie protested.

"Well, go and tell them that!"

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows "It's beaming out into space, who's it for?"

"It's him!" Jackie yelled. "It's the thing, it's the Slipeen!"

"They've found us." Mickey hissed.

"Mickey, I need that signal!" the Doctor said.

"Never mind the signal, get out! Mum, just get out! Get out!" Rose shouted.

"We can't. It's by the front door." Mickey said. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet panicked. "You're supposed to be the experts, think of something!"

"We're trying!" snapped Lilith

Lilith could hear the front door of Mickey's flat splintering on the other end of the phone. She bit her lip. That thing was there to kill her friend.

"That's my mother in trouble." Rose said quietly.

The Doctor leaned his hands against the table. "Right, if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within traveling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green." Rose offered.

The Doctor nodded. "Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell." Lilith added.

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Harriet put in.

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said," Rose struggled for the word. "Slipstream engine?"

"Narrows it down."

"They hunt like it's a ritual."

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute," Harriet said. "Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er…"

"Bad breath!" Rose realized.

"Calcium decay! Now, that narrows it down!"

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium." the Doctor said. "Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else?"

"Hyphenated surname!" Lilith cried. "That narrows it down to one planet!"

The Doctor grinned at his niece and the exclaimed together, "Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter." Mickey yelled sarcastically.

"Get into the kitchen!" the Doctor order. "Calcium, recombined with compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal!" cried Harriet.

"Just like Hannibal." the Doctor confirmed. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?"

The Doctor stared at the phone in disbelief. "It's your kitchen."

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose said.

"Oh, give it here." Jackie snapped. "What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!"

Jackie started naming things that she found. "Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs."

The Doctor looked up at Rose. "You kiss this man?"

"Not anymore." Lilith heard Rose mutter.

The sound of an explosion came over the speaker. Everyone sighed in relief. Rose turned to Harriet. "Hannibal?" she questioned.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet explained.

"Oh. Well, there you go then."

They all toasted the moment with a glass from the bottle.

"Lilith? Rose?" Mickey said. "Listen to this."

A new voice came over the phone, one that must have been playing on the TV. "Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty-five seconds."

"What?" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival, because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."


	10. Big Trouble on Downing Street Part 2

"Because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

"He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it." the Doctor said, petulantly.

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet questioned.

Lilith laughed. "No offense, but the human race will believe almost anything when it comes to aliens."

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They release the defense codes," Rose continued.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear." the Doctor finished. Marching over to the steel doors, he opened the metal shutters. The Slitheen turned and hissed, but he glared at them, unperturbed. "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back, and it's World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

One Slitheen was still in their skin suit. It was the large woman who had killed the secretary earlier. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place." Harriet protested. "What for?"

"Profit," the Doctor answered for them. "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

"That's just disgusting." Lilith sneered. "This is a level five planet. People live here."

"Ah, but it's the sale of the century." The Slitheen/woman said. "We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks; capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, child. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives."

"Bargain."

"Then I give you a choice," the Doctor said, eyes blazing. "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

The Slitheen all started laughing. "What, you?" the woman sneered. "Trapped in your box?"

"Yes," he said. "Me." And he closed the doors again.

Silence settled around the room and no one moved. Lilith and Rose shared a glance, but Lilith mind was elsewhere.

'Everything is going to work out.' She mentally assured the Doctor.

'You can't possibly know that, Lilith.'

'I have faith. And so does Rose.'

'Sadly, that only makes me feel worse.'

The phone still connected them to Mickey's flat, Lilith realized when Jackie spoke. "All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked.

"There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail."

Harriet scoffed. "Voicemail dooms us all."

"If we could just get out of here." Rose sighed.

"There's a way out."

Everyone turned and looked at the Doctor. At the sight of his neutral expression, a feeling of dread settled itself in Lilith's stomach. "What?"

"There's always been a way out."

"Then why don't we use it?"

Lilith answered, because she knew the Doctor didn't want to. "Because it's not safe. There's no guarantee we'd survive, is there?"

"Don't you dare." Jackie cried over the phone. "Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone dies."

"Do it." Rose said.

The Doctor looked at here, wide eyed. "You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?"

"Yeah."

"Please, Doctor. Please." Jackie begged. "She's my daughter. She's just a kid."

"Do you think I don't know that?" the Doctor snapped. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"Then what're you waiting for?" Rose asked him.

He stared at her intently, pain evident. "I could save the world but lose you."

I could save the world but lose you.

"Except," Harriet said, cutting through the silence that followed. "It's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine."

"And who the hell are you?" Jackie demanded.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you." She gave the Doctor a nod. "Do it."

The Doctor grinned.

"How do we get out?"

"We don't, we stay here." He said, grabbing the Emergency Protocols from the red briefcase on the other side of the table. "Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything."

"We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth." Mickey said.

"Right, we need to select a missile."

"We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defense codes."

"We don't need it, all we need's an ordinary missile." the Doctor said. "What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A."

"That's the one. Select. You ready for this?"

Lilith could hear Mickey gulp. "Yeah."

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands."

Lilith groaned internally. 'I really wish you hadn't called him that. It makes the situation sound bleaker than it already is.' The Doctor shot her an amused glance and she shook her head at him.

"Fire."

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, referring to the walls.

"Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big."

Lilith could almost feel Rose's unease. She covered her friend's hand with her own. Rose looked at her and smiled softly. "All right, now I'm making the decision." The human girl announced to the room. "I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes." She moved over to the cupboard where the two bodies were hidden. "You can survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on."

Lilith joined her, followed by Harriet. The three of them started emptying out the cabinet.

"It's on radar." Mickey said over the phone. "Counter defense five-five-six."

"Stop them intercepting it." the Doctor ordered.

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy."

"Five-five-six neutralized." He reported.

Lilith laughed to herself and shrugged when Harriet looked at her funny. "Usually, this is where Iron Man steps in and send the missile into space. The Avengers, 2012. Good movie."

"Not the time, Lilith."

"It empty!" Rose shouted.

The Doctor, Lilith, Rose, and Harriet crowded into the cabinet. The Doctor put his arm around Rose and held her close.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you three. Hannibal!" Harriet shouted just before the missile hit.

The world shook and threw them about, reminding Lilith terribly of a rough TARDIS landing. Would she ever get to go through another one of those? She wondered, feeling the temperature rise. Outside of the small cabinet, she knew, fire roared.

Stop being stupid, she told herself, of course you live.

The room suddenly spun on it's head and did a complete vertical three sixty before flipping them over another time.

And then, the shaking stopped. Everything was quiet, aside from a sole fire alarm ringing. Lilith looked over to see that the Doctor had landed on top of Rose. She tried desperately not to giggle at both of their flushed faces and the Doctor shot up and pushed open the door. It fell to the ground with a loud clang.

Ten Downing Street was nothing but rubble. Flames still flickered around, but they were alive. That was all that really mattered. The young Time Lady let out a whoop of joy and hugged Rose tightly! "Genius idea, Tyler!" she cried.

"Made in Britain." Harriet said, stepping out into the carnage.

A soldier ran over to them "Oh, my God. Are you all right?"

Harriet flashed her ID card. "Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am." He scampered off.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out. Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go." The Doctor suggested.

"Me? Ha." Harriet laughed. "I'm only a back-bencher."

Rose smiled. "I'd vote for you."

"Now, don't be silly." Harriet scolded. "Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on!" She made her way down the pile of rubble. "We're safe! The Earth is safe!"

"I thought I knew the name." The Doctor said, arms crossed. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age."

Something clicked in the back of Lilith's head. She could vaguely see a man in pajamas with a dead serious look on his face. Don't you think she looks tired?

Britain's Golden Age indeed. This wasn't the last they'd see of Miss Harriet Jones.

* * *

Back at the Tyler flat, Lilith was relaxing in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea that Jackie had made. The Doctor was back on the TARDIS, probably tinkering to take his mind off of the day's events.

Jackie had the TV on, where Harriet Jones herself was giving a speech. "Mankind stands tall, proud, and undefeated. God bless the human race."

"Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there. My daughter saved the world!" Jackie put her arm around Rose and squeezed.

"I think the Doctor helped a bit." Rose laughed.

"Hey!" Lilith called from the kitchen.

"Fat lot good you were, Smith!" Rose called back.

"I'll have your head for that, Tyler!"

"All right, then. Them too." Jackie said. "You should be given knighthoods."

"That's not the way he does things. No fuss. He just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance." Rose said pointedly.

"He's good in a crisis," Jackie admitted. "I'll give him that."

"Oh, now the world has changed. You're saying nice things about him."

"Well, I reckon I've got no choice. There's no getting rid of him since you're infatuated."

"I'm not infatuated."

Lilith laughed, coming out of the kitchen. "You keep telling yourself that, friend. I'm gonna head back to the TARDIS. And don't think we're not going to have a talk about that little moment that you two had back there."

"Don't know what you're talking about." Rose said, stiffly, with a grin in her voice.

"Of course you don't."

Lilith took her time going back to the ship, mulling over the memories she had regained since the end of this adventure's fiasco.

I could save the world but lose you.

How many times had she questioned her mother about what the Doctor meant when he had said that. She knew now. Now that she had seen his face, his eyes, as he said those words to his companion. Rassilon, he was really head over heels for the girl, wasn't he?

Ooh, he was never going to hear the end of it.

When she got to the TARDIS, a young boy was wiping the graffiti off of the side of the blue box. Lilith shuddered. Bad Wolf. She didn't like hose words much.

Mickey was sitting on a can off to the side, staring at the newspaper in his hands. "I just went down the shop, and I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." He showed her the newspaper. The headline read 'Alien Hoax'. "How could they do that? They saw it."

Lilith shrugged. "They don't want to, you know? They're just not ready. Sure, it's fine to believe in something that's invisible, but if it's staring you in the face? Nah, it can't be real. There's a scientific explanation for that. Humans are morons.

"We're just idiots." Mickey chuckled.

"Well," she said, drawing out the word and rubbing the back of her neck. "Not all of you."

"Yeah?"

"Come with us." She said after a moment. "Big Ears will get used to it. You're brave, Micks. Brilliant, my dad would say. We could use someone like you as part of the crew."

Mickey shook his head. "I can't. This life of yours, it's just too much. I couldn't do it. Don't tell her I said that."

Rose and Jackie came out of the building. Lilith looked back to the TARDIS. "Human mother incoming!" She warned loudly. The Doctor came out of the ship, chucking.

"I'll get a proper job. I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will." Jackie was saying to her daughter.

"I'm not leaving because of you. I'm travelling, that's all, and then I'll come back." Rose told her.

"But it's not safe." Jackie protested.

"Mum, if you saw it out there," Rose said gently. "You'd never stay home."

"Got enough stuff?" the Doctor asked, eyeing the duffel on Rose's back.

"Last time I stepped in there, it was spur of the moment." She shoved the duffel into his arms. "Now I'm signing up. You're stuck with me."

Lilith giggled, the Doctor glared at her. "Not. Funny."

Rose turned to Mickey. "Come with us. There's plenty of room."

"Aw, I'm insulted, Tyler. Is my company not enough for you?" Lilith asked, jokingly putting a hand over her heart. "Besides, you know the saying. Three's a company, four's a crowd?"

"Isn't it 'two's a company, three's a crowd'?" the Doctor asked.

"Details," Lilith waved a hand, dismissively. "Besides, Mr. High-and-Mighty Time Lord won't let poor Micks on board. His ego's too big."

"Oi!"

"We'd be dead without him." Rose pointed out.

"Leave it, Rose."

Rose shrugged. "Sorry." She said to Mickey.

He kissed her goodbye and Lilith, to the Doctor's extreme amusement, mimed puking.

"Good luck, yeah."

"You still can't promise me." Jackie said to the Doctor. "What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you and Lilith, Doctor, and she's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?"

Rose put her hand on her mother's arm. "Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine. I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed." She said. "Just ten seconds. So stop worrying. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?"

The Doctor disappeared into the TARDIS leaving Lilith to watch the small, domestic moment between the two women. Lilith smiled and followed her uncle into the ship.

The Last of the Time Lords, a temporally misplaced Time Lady and a human shop girl. How much trouble can they get into in ten seconds time?


	11. The Last of Your Kind Part 1

"I know you're there, Lilith." the Doctor said from his spot at the console.

Lilith was leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed. "I know."

"Well are you going to just stand there and stare at me or are you going to tell me what you want?"

She strode over to the console where he was setting coordinates. "I wanted to talk to you about something that happened in the cabinet room.

The Doctor's hands froze. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Well, I'm not talking about you going all Oncoming Storm at the Slitheen. I'm used to that. What I'm not used to is you looking at companions like that."

"Like what?"

"Don't play innocent with me, Uncle. It doesn't suit this regeneration. 'I could save the world but lose you'?"

Suddenly, the TARDIS shook and an alarm went going off. "Distress signal!"

The two of them started around the console, stabling the ship and letting the signal draw them out of the Vortex. Rose appeared in the console room just as they landed.

"So what is it? What's wrong?" she asked as the exited the TARDIS.

"Don't know." the Doctor shrugged. "Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course."

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

"And when are we?"

Lilith answered, "Two thousand and twelve."

The Doctor studied a display case nearby. He didn't seem to like what he saw.

"God, that's so close." Rose frowned. "So I should be twenty six."

The Doctor found a light switch and turned the lights on. The bright lights illuminated the large room filled with display cases, each containing something that was most definitely not from Earth.

"Blimey." Rose breathed. "It's a great big museum."

"An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby." the Doctor said. "They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship."

"That's a bit of Slitheen! That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed." Rose exclaimed, looking at what was indeed the arm of a Raxacoricofallapatorian. Three clawed hand and all.

Lilith wandered over to a case a few rows down. The contents caused a shiver to run down her back. "Uncle, check this out."

"Oh, look at you." the Doctor whispered.

"What is it?" Rose questioned.

It was the head of a Cyberman. "An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

There were so many Cybermen, Lil. Them on top of the Cult of Skaro, it was the stuff of nightmares.

"Is that where the signal's coming from?"

"No, it's stone dead." The Time Lord assured the human. "The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." The Doctor touched the display case and an blaring alarm went off. Armed guards rushed in from all sides, cutting them off from the TARDIS.

"If someone's collecting aliens," Rose whispered to Lilith and the Doctor. "That makes you two Exhibit A."

A woman with curly, blond hair came out of the crowd of soldiers. "Come with me." She said.

The Doctor, Rose and Lilith were led down a hallway into an office where a middle aged man was sitting behind a desk, talking to a boy who looked to be a little older than Rose.

"What does it do?" The man was asking the boy.

"Well, you see the tubes on the side?" the boy responded. "It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel."

Lilith raised her eyebrows. "Seriously, dude? Don't hold it like that."

"Shut it, kid." The woman who had brought them snapped.

"But he's doing it wrong." Lilith protested.

"Is it dangerous?" the boy questioned.

"No, it just looks stupid." She held out her hand for the item, and the soldiers that surrounded them all cocked their weapons. The man handed her the curved, palm sized object."

"You need to be gentle." Lilith stroked the artifact and it made a musical sound. She played several different notes.

The man smiled slightly as the watched her stroke the object. "It's a musical instrument."

"A Rennin hand flute to be exact." Lilith clarified. "It's a long way from home."

"Here, let me." The man took it back. His touch was harsher. The sounds that the hand flute produced were sharp.

"I said gentle." Lilith said. "It reacts to the lightest of touches. It needs precision."

The man finally got the hang of it, coaxing light notes out of the instrument.

"Very good." Lilith grinned. "You're an expert."

"As are you." The man said. He casually tossed the hand flute aside. It clattered to the floor. "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Lilith Smith. This is my Uncle, the Doctor and our friend, Rose. And you are?"

"Like you don't know." The man turned suspicious. "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

The Doctor put his hand on Lilith's shoulder. "Pretty much sums us up, yeah."

"The question is: how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice. You're quite a collector yourself; she's rather pretty."

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her she." Rose snapped.

"She's English too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend." The man said to the boy.

"This is Mister Henry van Statten." the younger man introduced.

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose asked.

"Mister van Statten owns the Internet."

Rose scoffed. "Don't be stupid. No one owns the Internet."

"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?" Van Statten said.

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum." the Doctor said. "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?"

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."

Lilith shook her head. 'A little self-righteous, don't you think?'

'Shut it, you.'

"And yet, I captured you." Van Statten said. "Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me." the Doctor shot back.

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know.

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

"Blimey," Rose said. "You can smell the testosterone."

Lilith snorted. "Seriously."

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down." Van Statten said to the woman, and then turned to the boy. "You, English. Look after the girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do." Lastly, he spoke to Lilith and the Doctor. "And you, Miss Smith and Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

* * *

"We've tried everything." Van Statten said as they entered a small room with multiple monitors. "The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside."

"Inside?" the Doctor questioned. "Inside what?"

"Welcome back, sir," a man in a biohazard suit said to van Statten. "I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?" Lilith frowned.

But van Statten smiled. "Thought of it myself. Good, isn't it? Although I'd much to prefer to find out its real name."

"Here, you'd better put these on." Biohazard guy offered the Doctor a pair of gloves. "The last guy that touched it burst into flames."

The Doctor looked at the man like he was an idiot. "I won't touch it then."

"Go ahead, Doctor. Impress me." Van Statten said, motioning to the door to what was apparently called 'the Cage'. The Doctor stepped through the heavy door and it closed behind him. "Don't open that door until we get a result."

Lilith glared at the man. She already disliked him, and trapping the Doctor in that 'Cage' didn't raise her opinion of him. Please let him be careful. She prayed to whatever god was listening. She joined van Statten and Goddard at a desk with monitors on it.

It was dark inside the Cage. The door clanged shut and locked behind the Doctor. "Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him." Van Statten bristled and Lilith smirked. "I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

Two white lights blinked next to a blue glow as a mechanical voice spoke. " **Doctor?** "

"No." Lilith breathed.

"Impossible." the Doctor gasped.

" **The Doctor?** " The lights came on to reveal a metal creature being held in chains. A Dalek. " **Exterminate! Exterminate!** " the Dalek cried.

The Doctor hammered on the door in terror. "Let me out!" he yelled.

" **Exterminate!** "

"You have to let him out of there!" Lilith shouted.

"Sir, it's going to kill him." Goddard said.

But van Statten was staring at the monitor in awe. "It's talking!"

" **You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!** " the Dalek's gun arm twitched but nothing happened.

Lilith narrowed her eyes. What was the damned pepper pot playing at?

"It's not working." the Doctor realized. He laughed as the Dalek looked at its impotent weapon. "Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?"

" **Keep back!** " the Dalek demanded, rolling a bit backwards, but the chains held it in place.

The Doctor stood inches away, staring into its eyepiece. "What for? What're you going to do to me? If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing." He spat. "What the hell are you here for?"

" **I am waiting for orders.** "

"What does that mean?"

" **I am a soldier.** " The Dalek said. " **I was bred to receive orders.** "

"Well you're never going to get any. Not ever."

" **I demand orders!** "

"They're never going to come! Your race is dead!" the Doctor said harshly. "You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second."

" **You lie!** " the Dalek accused.

"I watched it happen! I made it happen!"

" **You destroyed us?** "

Lilith flinched. This wasn't going anywhere good.

"I had no choice." the Doctor's voice lost some volume. Her turned and took a few steps away from the Dalek.

" **And what of the Time Lords?** " the Dalek asked.

"Dead." the Doctor said in what was almost a whisper. "They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."

" **And the coward survived**." Taunted the other alien.

Lilith could almost see the Doctor face twisting into a disgustedly amused expression. "Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me. Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left."

" **I am alone in the universe.** " The Dalek said slowly.

"Yep." the Doctor responded with a small chuckle.

" **So are you. We are the same.** "

"We're not the same!" the Doctor shouted "I've got—" he paused "No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve." Uh oh. "Exterminate." He pulled a lever on a nearby console and the Dalek lit up with electricity.

" **Have pity!** " the Dalek pleaded.

"Why should I? You never did." He pulled another lever.

"Let him out of there, you imbecile!" Lilith yelled at van Statten

Van Statten turned to his men. "Get him out." He ordered.

" **Help me!** " the Dalek cried.

Guards grabbed the Doctor as he went to ramp up the voltage again. They dragged him out of the Cage as he yelled, "You've got to destroy it!" The guards roughly shoved him into the observation room.

Lilith immediately ran to him and crushed the Doctor in a hug, telepathically sending him waves of comfort.

'They survived, Lilith.' Even his thoughts were hoarse.

'It's just one. Just one stupid Dalek.' She assured him. Just one, she assured herself.

Van Statten stormed out of the Cage in anger. Everyone followed him to the elevator. "What can you tell me about this 'Dalek'?" the billionaire demanded.

"The metal's just battle armor." the Doctor said. "The real Dalek creature's inside."

"What does it look like?"

"A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate." Lilith shuddered.

"Genetically engineered." Van Statten repeated. "By whom?"

"By a genius, van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him."

"It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?" asked Goddard.

"Because I'm here." the Doctor said fiercely. "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane."

"It must have fallen through time." Lilith mused.

"The only survivor." the Doctor's voice was bitter.

"You talked about a war?" Goddard prompted.

"The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived, too." Van Statten pointed out.

"Not by choice."

Lilith slipped her hand into the Doctor's. 'It's a good thing you did, you dumb Time Lord.'

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth." Van Statten said slowly. "Doctor, there's you and Miss Smith. The last two of your kind in existence."

Lilith mentally swore in Gallifreyan.

They were dragged into what the young Time Lady could only assume was a laboratory, but looked more like a torture chamber.

The Doctor was chained, spread-eagled and shirtless. Lilith had her hands shackled together and a silent; for fear that they would hurt the Doctor more than they would if she talked.

"Now, smile!" Van Statten said with a self-satisfied grin. A clearly painful laser scan ran down the Doctor's body and he writhed in pain.

Lilith struggled against her bonds. "You moron! That scanner isn't meant to be used on living creatures!" She couldn't let the Doctor regenerate early, especially not in front of a sociopathic human.

"Two hearts! Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this."

"So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?"

"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten?" the Doctor questioned, voice threateningly cold. "A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case," Van Statten said. "I will be true to myself and continue."

"Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"

"Nothing can escape the Cage." The human dismissed.

"Stop this! Now!" Lilith growled. But van Statten just blasted the Doctor with the laser again.

"But it's woken up. It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!"

Van Statten ran the laser scan again, just to hear the Doctor scream.

Lilith shouted until her throat was sore, but the man wouldn't stop. Not until a guards voice came over a loud speaker. "Condition red! Condition red! I repeat, this is not a drill!"

The Doctor raised his head to look van Statten in the eyes. "Release me if you want to live."

* * *

The Doctor, Lilith, van Statten, and a guard rushed into the office where a large wall TV showed the room outside the Cage. Rose was there with the English boy, Adam.

"You've got to keep it in that cell." the Doctor ordered.

"Doctor, it's all my fault." Rose said.

"I've sealed the compartment." The guard on the screen informed them. "It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations."

"A Dalek's a freaking genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat." Lilith deadpanned.

The door swung open and the Dalek, now free of its chains, rolled out.

"Open fire!" the guard shouted and started shooting.

"Like that'll do anything." Lilith mumbled.

"Don't shoot it!" Van Statten ordered. "I want it unharmed."

"Rose, get out of there!" the Doctor demanded.

"De Maggio," the male guard said to the female. "Take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?"

"Run, Tyler!" Lilith shouted at the screen.

The Dalek glided up to the wall monitor and smashed it. The image on the screen went to black.

"We're losing power. It's draining the base." Goddard said, typing furiously at the computer. "Oh, my God. It's draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah."

"It's downloading." the Doctor said.

"Downloading what?"

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down."

"It's not just energy. That Dalek just absorbed the entire Internet."

Lilith gulped. "Now it knows everything."

"The cameras in the vault have gone down."

"We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else." the Doctor said, turning to van Statten. "You've got to kill it now!"

"All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately." Goddard ordered over her Bluetooth device.

With her enhanced Gallifreyan hearing, Lilith could clearly hear the gunshot over the comms. It didn't sit well with her one bit when she heard the tell tale firing of a Dalek blaster and the shriek of it's human victim.

"Tell them to stop shooting at it."

Goddard looked at van Statten like he was insane. "But it's killing them!"

"They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork; do you hear me? Do you hear me?" he repeated.

The gunfire stopped and no one answered. The last Dalek had killed them all.


	12. The Last of Your Kind Part 2

"They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork; do you hear me? Do you hear me?" he repeated.

The gunfire stopped and no one answered. The last Dalek had killed them all.

Lilith looked at the Doctor. She could see the fury that hid behind his semi-neutral mask. All those innocent people were dead.

Goddard called up a schematic of the base. "That's us, right below the surface. That's the cage, and that's the Dalek."

"This museum of yours, have you got any alien weapons?" the Doctor asked,

"Lots of them," Goddard answered. "But the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive." Van Statten insisted. "We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

"Leaving everyone trapped with it. Rose is down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that?" the Doctor said fiercely. He looked back at the computer and pointed to a section on the schematic. "It's got to go through this area. What's that?"

"Weapons testing."

"Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone." He ordered. "Only then have you got a chance of killing it."

Goddard got up and the Doctor took her place in front of the computer. Lilith put her hand on his shoulder. "We got this." She told him.

"I sure hope so." the Doctor muttered.

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something." Van Statten said.

"Daleks don't think like humans, van Statten." Lilith said. "It's not how they operate. Shoot first, ask questions never."

"What's the nearest town?" the Doctor asked.

"Salt Lake City." Van Statten responded.

"Population?"

"One million."

The Doctor looked up from the computer. "All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs."

"But why would it do that?" Van Statten demanded.

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose!" He turned away from the man and spoke into the comms unit. "The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

"Thank you, Doctor," came the Commander's voice. "But I think I know how to fight one single tin robot. Positions! On my mark. Open fire!"

The TV screen flickered to life, giving the people in the office a view of the loading bay. "We've got vision." Goddard said.

The Doctor looked over at the screen. "It wants us to see."

The hail of bullets was having no effect. Then, the Dalek started to rise straight up into the air. It shot the fire alarm and the sprinklers are set off. When the concrete floor was covered with a layer of water, it fired downwards and electrocuted every wet person on the ground.

"Fall back! Fall back!" the Commander ordered.

The Dalek killed him and the rest of his men with another strategic shot, then continued to hang there, water pouring down its shell. It looked to Lilith like the damn thing was pitifully crying in the rain.

Silence settled around the office. Lilith's expression hardened. It must have been another twenty people who had been killed for no reason. "Perhaps," Van Statten said. "It's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."

Lilith rolled her eyes.

"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir." Goddard said sharply. "We can't get out."

"You said we could seal the vault."

Lilith looked at her Uncle in shock. Rose was still down there, what was he thinking?

"It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads."

Goddard cut him off. "There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive."

"We've got emergency power. We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors." the Doctor said.

"We'd have to bypass the security codes. That would take a computer genius."

Van Statten smirked. "Good thing you've got me, then."

"You want to help?" the Doctor asked, suspicious.

"I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me."

"Sir." Goddard said, nodding to the screen that showed the Dalek.

" **I shall speak only to the Doctor.** " The Dalek said.

"You're going to get rusty."

" **I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me**."

"What's your next trick?"

" **I have been searching for the Daleks.** "

"Yeah, I saw." the Doctor snorted. "Downloading the Internet. What did you find?"

" **I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes.** "

"And?"

" **Nothing.** " The Dalek admitted. " **Where shall I get my orders now?** "

"You're just a soldier without commands." the Doctor taunted.

" **Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer.** "

"What for? What's the point?" the Doctor demanded. "Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for."

" **Then what should I do?** "

"All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one." the Doctor spat. "Kill yourself."

" **The Daleks must survive!** " the Dalek protested.

"The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth! Why don't you just die?"

The Dalek was silent for a moment. " **You would make a good Dalek.** " The screen went blank.

"Seal the Vault."

"I can leech power off the ground defenses, feed it to the bulkheads. God, it's been years since I had to work this fast."

Lilith frowned at van Statten. "Are you enjoying this?"

"Doctor," Goddard said. "She's still down there."

Lilith reached into her pocket and pulled out a late twenty first century Bluetooth earpiece. She gave it to the Doctor, whipped out her cell phone, and dialed Rose's number.

"This isn't the best time." Rose answered.

"Where are you?" the Doctor demanded.

"Level forty nine."

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty six."

"Can't you stop them closing?" Rose asked.

"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you."

Lilith huffed, impatient. "Now for Rassilon's sake, Tyler, run."

"Done it." Van Statten said. "We've got power to the bulkheads."

"The Dalek's right behind them." Goddard informed then.

"We're nearly there. Give us two seconds." Rose panted over the phone

"Doctor, I can't sustain the power. The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads."

The Doctor looked at Lilith who could see the panic and uncertainty in his eyes. She nodded. "I'm sorry." He said to Rose and hit Enter.

"The vault is sealed."

The Time Lord jumped out of his seat. "Rose, where are you? Rose, did you make it?"

There was silence for a moment. Then, "Sorry, I was a bit slow." Lilith's stomach dropped in horror. "Sealed in, Doctor. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault. And do you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

Then came, "Exterminate!" and the unmistakable sound of a Dalek's laser. Lilith fell to her knees and let out a loud sob.

The Doctor tore the earpiece off and just stood there, frozen in place. "I killed her."

"I'm sorry." Van Statten said.

"I said I'd protect her. She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me.

"It was the prize of my collection!"

"Your collection? But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Rose? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater."

"Exactly!" Van Statten cried. "I wanted to touch the stars!"

The Doctor fixed him with a glare. "You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get!" He stopped to take a breath. "And you took her down with you. She was nineteen years old."

Adam came into the room. The Doctor made to snap at him, but Lilith beat him to the punch. She flung herself at the boy and pinned him against the wall.

"You were quick on your feet, leaving Rose behind." She growled.

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" Adam protested, looking pointedly at the Doctor.

" **Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies.** "

Everyone turned to the wall TV where it showed an image of the Dalek holding a living, breathing Rose at gunpoint.

"You're alive!" the Doctor gasped in relief.

"Can't get rid of me." She joked shakily.

"I thought you were dead."

" **Open the bulkhead!** " the Dalek demanded.

Rose shook her head vigorously. "Don't do it!"

The Dalek aimed its eyestalk directly at the camera. " **What use are emotions,** " it said. " **If you will not save the woman you love?** "

The woman you love.

"I killed her once." the Doctor said. "I can't do it again." He pressed the Enter key again and the bulkhead opened. The Dalek led Rose through.

"What do we do now, you bleeding heart?" Van Statten snapped. "What the hell do we do?"

"Kill it when it gets here." Adam suggested.

"All the guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the vault."

"Only the catalogued ones."

Lilith looked at the British boy with new eyes as he explained on his way to his workshop, "Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."

"You? In a fight?" Lilith scoffed.

"I could do." Adam protested.

The Doctor snorted. "What're you going to do, throw your A-Levels at 'em?" He continued to go through Adam collection of alien weapons, tossing them aside when they didn't suit what he was looking for. "Broken. Broken. Hairdryer. Oh, yes." He pulled out what Lilith recognized as a Tranzonian blaster cannon. "Lock and load."

Lilith wasn't sold on the idea of using the alien weapon. Her Doctor was a man who despised guns and seeing him holding a blaster cannon, fully ready to use it, unsettled her. But She knew better than to question him.

Not even she could stand in the way of the Oncoming Storm.

* * *

The Doctor stood in the corridor, blaster cannon raised, ready to shoot. To kill. "Get out of the way!" he yelled. "Rose, get out of the way now!"

"No. I won't let you do this."

"That thing killed hundreds of people." the Doctor spat.

"It's not the one pointing the gun at me." Rose pointed out.

Lilith's eyes flicked back and forth between the two. She could sense the rage and hate that was rolling off of the Doctor. But she could also sense pity. It wasn't hers, and it definitely wasn't his. Lilith tried to calm the Doctor, send him a calm feeling, but he threw up his telepathic shields. She shrunk away.

"I've got to do this. I've got to end it." He insisted. "The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left."

"But look at it." Rose stepped aside.

The Dalek's armor was open, showing the freakish mutation that was the alien's true form. One of its tentacles was tentatively stretched out, reaching for the sunlight. "What's it doing?"

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants."

"But it can't—"

"It couldn't kill van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's changing. What about you, Doctor?" she questioned. "What the hell are you changing into?"

The Doctor lowered the blaster cannon. "I couldn't..." he choked. "I wasn't… Oh, Rose. They're all dead."

" **Why do we survive?** " asked the Dalek.

"I don't know."

" **I am the last of the Daleks.** "

"You're not even that." the Doctor said. "Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

" **Into what?** "

"Something new. I'm sorry."

"Isn't that better?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "Not for a Dalek."

" **I can feel. So many ideas, so much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die.** "

The Doctor and Lilith stared at the Dalek incredulously. "I can't do that." Rose said.

" **This is not life,** " the Dalek insisted. " **This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!** "

Rose hesitated. "Do it."

" **Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?** "

"Yeah." She managed.

" **So am I. Exterminate.** "

Rose retreated and ran to the Doctor's side as it closed up its armor again then rises into the air. The spheres on its lower body spread out around it creating a force field, and then it imploded safely.

The Doctor dropped the blaster cannon and swept Rose into a hug. "I thought I lost you." He whispered hoarsely.

"I'm alive." She whispered back. "I'm right here."

* * *

"Well, Tyler," Lilith said as they walked through the museum part of the bunker. "I'm glad you're not dead."

Rose chuckled. "Me too."

The Doctor stroked the side of the TARDIS when they reached their destination. "A little piece of home. Better than nothing."

"Is that the end of it, the Time War?" Rose asked.

"Lilith and I are the only ones left. We win. How about that?" he said bitterly.

"The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'd know, in here." He tapped his temple. "Feels like there's no one."

"Gallifreyans are telepathic. We can feel each other in the back of our minds." Lilith explained, seeing Rose's confused expression.

"Well then, good thing I'm not going anywhere."

The Doctor smiled. "Yeah."

Adam jogged over. "We'd better get out," he said. "Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed."

"About time." Rose snorted.

"I'll have to go back home."

"Better hurry up then." the Doctor told him. "Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

"Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars." Rose said.

Lilith covered her face. "Rose." She whined.

"He's all on his own, Lil, and he did help."

"He left you down there." the Doctor protested.

"So did you." Rose retorted.

Adam stared at the three of them. "What're you talking about? We've got to leave."

"Rose, he's a bit pretty."

"I hadn't noticed." Rose said. Lilith heard the honesty in her voice.

Apparently, so did the Doctor. "On your own head." he unlocked the TARDIS and went inside.

Lilith looked at her friend. "I am not cleaning up any messes your pet ape makes." She said with jest in her voice. She joined her uncle at the console as he started the dematerialization sequence.

Adam stepped into the TARDIS. Both his bag and his jaw dropped to the floor. "It's…" the boy genius struggled for words. "It's bigger on the inside."

Lilith turned to the Doctor and, for the first time that day, laughed. "Onwards?" he asked with a grin.

She grinned back. "Allons-y."


	13. Confrontation

Lilith didn't wait five seconds after the two humans had gone off to explore the TARDIS before fixing the Doctor with a glare. "You're not getting out of this conversation." She warned him.

"And here I thought you'd be worried about my health." the Doctor said sarcastically.

"Make no mistake, I'm going to drag you down to the med bay eventually." Lilith said seriously. "But I'm not letting you worm out of talking about something this important."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Even the Dalek knew better than that."

"The Dalek absorbed the Internet." the Doctor snapped. "It had it's own twisted idea of what love is."

There it was, the real topic of the conversation. "Then clearly my idea is twisted as well because I agree with the freaking pepper pot." Lilith snapped back.

"Lilith," the Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. He was trying to sound unaffected, but Lilith noticed that he refused to meet her eye. "I'm not in love with Rose Tyler."

"Uncle, you can't deny that you at least care about her more than you have other companions."

"She's interesting, that's all." the Doctor insisted. "Have you noticed that she's slightly telepathic?"

Lilith rolled her eyes. She wasn't going to get anywhere with him in that state. "Fine. Fine." She sighed. "It's not like I really want to know that much about your love life anyway."

"Thank you."

"Med bay. Now."


	14. Consequences of Having a Pet Part 1

The TARDIS landed with its regular jolt and the Doctor and Rose went outside to check the surroundings.

"You ready for your first experience of a new world, A-levels?" Lilith asked Adam, who was looking a bit nervous.

"Course I am." He said confidently.

Lilith laughed to herself; she was going to enjoy his reaction.

Rose opened the TARDIS door. "Adam? Out you come."

Adam came out, and his jaw dropped. "Oh, my God."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Rose assured him.

"Where are we?"

"Good question. Let's see." The blond said. "So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen…" she paused. "Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down. Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!"

'Judging by the architecture, huh?' Lilith raised her eyebrow at the Doctor who just winked back at her. Rose led the group through the metal gate to a room with a massive viewing window.

"Here we go! And this is, I'll let the Doctor describe it."

"The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle."

Adam fainted.

"Your pet human decided to take a nap, Tyler." Lilith said, not bothering to turn around and check if the boy was okay.

"He's your boyfriend." Said the Doctor.

"Not likely."

After bringing Adam to, they made their way to the common area.

"Come on, Adam. Open your mind." The Doctor said, wrapping an arm around Adam and Rose's shoulders. "You're going to like this fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners—

"Out of the way!" A man yelled.

They had walked into an area with a lot of people bustling around, opening up food vending stations and serving customers at their counters. Lilith vaguely heard someone mention something called a Kronkburger and chuckled at the image of the cartoon character the name brought up.

"Fine cuisine?" Rose repeated, examining the food at one of the vendor's shops.

"My watch must be wrong." the Doctor frowned and checked his watch. "No, it's fine. It's weird."

"That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was." Rose grinned.

"My history's perfect." He insisted.

"Well, obviously not." Lilith snorted. But the lack of the refinement of the fourth great and bountiful human empire unsettled her just as much as she could tell it did the Doctor. Something wasn't right.

"They're all human." Adam noted. "What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question." the Doctor paused. "Actually, that is a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."

"No, I'm just a bit time sick."

"No, you just need a bit of grub. Oi, mate," the Doctor said to one of the vendors. "How much is a kronkburger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now join the queue." He replied.

"Money, Uncle. We need money." Lilith reminded the Doctor.

"Right. Let's use a cashpoint." The Doctor went over to a Credit Five cashpoint and buzzed the sonic screwdriver at it. It produced a metal rod, which the Doctor handed to Adam. "There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets."

"How does it work?" Adam asked.

"Go and find out. Stop nagging me. The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook; you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?" Lilith and Rose giggled. The Doctor shot them a look. "Now stop asking questions, go and do it." Adam wandered back towards the food. "Off you go, then," he shooed Rose after the boy. "Your first date."

"You're going to get a smack, you are." Rose threatened jokingly and followed Adam.

The Doctor crossed his arms and watched her leave, Lilith elbowed him with a grin. "Somebody's jelling." She teased.

"Jelling?"

"Jealous. You're jealous of Mr. A-levels." Lilith accused.

The Doctor snorted. "No idea what you're talking about." He walked over to a pair of women who were walking by. "Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where I am?"

"Floor one three nine. Could they write it any bigger?" One of them answered,

"Floor one three nine of what?"

"Must've been a hell of a party."

"You're on Satellite Five." The other woman told him.

"What's Satellite Five?" the Doctor asked.

The first woman rolled her eyes. "Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?"

Lilith stepped in. "Look at him, he's stupid."

"Thank you, Lilith." the Doctor said sarcastically.

"Hold on, wait a minute," the second woman said. "Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"

"You've got me. Well done. You're too clever for me." The Doctor held up the psychic paper.

"We were warned about this in basic training." Woman 2 told her friend. "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

"Right," the first woman said, straightening up. "Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to floor five hundred I'll do anything."

"Why, what happens on floor five hundred?"

"The walls are made of gold. And you should know, Mister Management. So, this is what we do." She went over to a wall monitor. "Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant."

Bad Wolf. Lilith shivered. Wait… "Did she just say the Face of Boe is pregnant? How the hell does that even work?"

"I get it. You broadcast the news." the Doctor said.

"We are the news. We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it." She crossed her arms. "Six hundred channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going though us."

"Well that's not self-righteous at all." Lilith muttered.

The Doctor turned around. "Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" he called to Adam and Rose.

"What's up?" Rose asked.

Lilith noticed Adam slip something into his pocket. She decided to ignore it. "We're getting a tour of floor one three nine. Come on."

* * *

In what the woman said was called the newsroom, seven people were seated at an octagonal desk around a central chair with wires coming out of it. The Doctor, Rose, Lilith, and Adam stood to one side, observing.

"Now, everybody behave. We have a management inspection. How do you want it, by the book?" she asked, addressing the Doctor.

"Right from scratch, thanks." He said.

"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of newsgathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy."

"Actually, it's the law." The other woman from earlier pointed out.

Cathica frowned at her. "Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." Cathica settled into the central chair. "And engage safety."

The seven held their hands over palm print on the table in front of them. Lights started to come on around the room. Cathica snapped and what Lilith could only describe as a 'door' opened in her forehead, revealing a bit of her brain. The seven put their hands into the palm prints. "And three, two, and spike."

A beam of light shined into Cathica's head.

"Compressed information, streaming into her." the Doctor explained to a shell-shocked Rose and Adam. "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer.

"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose said.

"It would explain her attitude." Lilith mumbled.

"Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it." the Doctor said, dismissively. "There's too much. Her head'd blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."

Rose knelt between two of the people sitting cross-legged. "So, what about all these people round the edge?"

"They must have tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to Cathica and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place." Lilith mused. "Now that's what I call power."

Rose went back over to Adam. "You all right?"

"I can see her brain." He breathed.

"Do you want to get out?"

"No. No, this technology, it's amazing."

"This technology's wrong." the Doctor said darkly.

"Trouble?" Rose asked, almost hopefully.

The Doctor smiled at her. "Oh, yeah."

Suddenly, Suki pulled her hands away as if she had just been shocked. The other six lifted their hands and the information beam shuts down. Cathica's head door closed. "Come off it, Suki," she snapped. "I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?"

"Sorry." Suki said. "It must've been a glitch."

Cathica sighed.

A projection lit up one of the walls of the room. "Promotion." A voice said.

"Come on. This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me." Cathica prayed. "Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name."

Rose and Lilith shared a look of disbelief. The latter rolled her eyes.

"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor five hundred."

"I don't believe it." Suki breathed. "Floor five hundred."

"How the hell did you manage that?" Cathica demanded. "I'm above you."

"I don't know. I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes."

Cathica crossed her arms. "That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years.

"What's floor five hundred?" Rose asked.

"The walls are made of gold."

* * *

"Cathica, I'm going to miss you." Suki said. She turned to the Doctor. "Floor five hundred, thank you."

"I didn't do anything." the Doctor said.

"Well, you're my lucky charm."

"All right." He shrugged. "I'll hug anyone." Suki laughed and hugged him.

Lilith raised her eyebrows at him.

'What?'

'Nothing.' Lilith smiled at Rose as she joined them. "Where's Adam?"

"Went to cool off on the observation deck." Rose told her. She nodded, not that she trusted the shifty human on his own. Lilith didn't like Adam all that much, but she didn't know why.

"Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry." Suki got into the elevator and waved. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!"

Lilith and Rose waved back, but Cathica looked away sourly. "Good riddance."

"You're talking like you'll never see her again." the Doctor said. "She's only going upstairs."

"We won't. Once you go to floor five hundred you never come back."

The Doctor and Lilith shared a frown. That didn't sound good.

"Have you ever been up there?" the Doctor asked.

"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few."

Lilith didn't particularly like the sound of that.

The Doctor continued asking Cathica a multitude of questions until they got back to the newsroom and the woman started to get irritated. "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?"

"But you've never been to another floor?" the Doctor pestered her. "Not even one floor down?"

"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here." Cathica looked down at her clipboard. "Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all. You're not management, are you?"

"Oh darn, you've caught us in our vicious plot." Lilith said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

"Don't you even ask?" the Doctor questioned.

"Well, why would I?"

"You're a journalist. Why's all the crew human?"

Cathica frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"There's no aliens on board." The Time Lord noted. "Why?"

"I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything." The journalist shrugged.

"Then where are they?"

"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats."

"What threats?"

Cathica looked increasingly uncomfortable. "I don't know all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."

"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice."

"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."

"I can see better." the Doctor said. "This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."

"It's cutting edge." Cathica protested.

"It's backwards." the Doctor insisted. "There's a great big door in your head."

"He's right." Lilith agreed. "They should've gotten rid of this system years ago."

"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked.

"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think." the Doctor gestured to Cathica. "The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would you know?"

"Trust me." Trust me, I'm the Doctor. The voice of Lilith's linear Doctor said in the back of her mind. "Humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

Cathica went silent. "Ninety one years ago."

Lilith snorted. "Typical."


	15. Consequences of Having a Pet Part 2

"Humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

"Ninety one years ago."

"Typical."

"What could possibly be holding back the human Empire?" Lilith wondered aloud, pacing as the Doctor was using his sonic screwdriver on a pair of double doors.

"What indeed?" he agreed.

"We are so going to get in trouble." Cathica muttered. "You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off."

"Lilith, tell her to button it."

"Can it, Journalist."

"You can't just vandalize the place." Cathica insisted. "Someone's going to notice!"

The doors opened. The sonic buzzed as the Doctor messed with something amongst the mare's nest of wiring. Something sparked.

"This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work."

"Go on, then. See you!" the Doctor said without looking back.

"I can't just leave you, can I?"

Lilith rolled her eyes.

"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down. It's boiling." Rose said. "What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?"

Cathica shrugged. "I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."

"'Something to do with the turbine.'" the Doctor mocked.

"Well, I don't know!"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question."

"Oh, thank you."

"Why is it so hot?" the Doctor questioned.

Cathica threw up her hands. "One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!"

"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." the Doctor held up a bundle of ripped wires and frowned. He reached back into the wiring and pulled out a monitor with a schematic on it. "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."

Cathica looked at the screen with wide eyes. "This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?"

"Something's wrong." Lilith mused, frowning.

"I suppose."

"Why, what is it?" Rose asked.

"The ventilation system." Cathica answered. "Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channeling massive amounts of heat down."

"All the way from the top." the Doctor added.

"Floor five hundred."

"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat." He said.

"Well, I don't know about you," Rose said. "But I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?

Cathica shook her head. "You can't. You need a key."

"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here." the Doctor took the monitor back. "Here we go. Override two one five point nine."

The monitor read 215.9976/31

"How come it's given you the code?" Cathica almost whined.

"Someone up there likes me."

* * *

"Come on." Rose said to Cathica as the got in the elevator. "Come with us."

"No way." Cathica shook her head.

"Bye!" the Doctor said, waving cheerily

"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." The journalist stalked away.

"So she's gone," Lilith said. "Adam's given up. Looks like it's just the three of us."

Rose smiled. "Yeah."

The Doctor took Rose's hand. "Good."

Lilith eyed their joined hands and smirked. "Yep." The elevator reached the top in less than thirty seconds. The doors opened to what Lilith could only describe as a floor that was just as frozen as it was deserted.

"The walls are not made of gold." the Doctor said, noting the ice and frost covered walls. "You should go back downstairs, Rose."

Rose crossed her arms. "Tough."

'Did you really expect that to work?' Lilith asked, telepathically.

The Doctor sighed. 'No.'

Exploring the frozen five hundreth floor, the came across a platform where stood a man with shocking white hair. Half a dozen other people, including Suki, Lilith noted, sat in chairs working at computers.

"I started without you." The man said, still staring at a large computer screen. "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"

"Suki. Suki!" Rose breathed, running to the girl's side. "Hello? Can you hear me? Suki?" The former journalist just kept on working. "What have you done to her?" Rose demanded.

"I think she's dead." the Doctor said.

"But she's working."

"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets." Lilith explained with distaste.

"Oh! You're full of information." The man said happily. "But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you. Come on."

Rose tried to go back over to the Doctor, but Suki grabbed her arm. Two other puppet zombies grabbed the Doctor and Lilith. "Tell me who you are." The man insisted.

Lilith stayed silent and glared at the pale man. The Doctor answered. "Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?"

"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."

"And who's that?"

"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire." The man stage whispered. "In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live."

Something above their head growled fiercely. Lilith gulped, but didn't look up.

"Yeah." He allowed as the snarling continued. "Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." He pointed up. Lilith and the Doctor glanced at each other before looking in that direction.

There, hanging from the ceiling, was giant lump with a very nasty set of teeth in a mouth on the end of a pseudopod. And, like any nasty alien, it just had to be slimy.

Rose's eyes widened. "What is that?"

"You mean that glob in charge of Satellite Five?" Lilith asked, incredulously.

"That 'glob', as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max."

"Max." Lilith repeated, shaking her head. "Why can't the bad guys be sane for once?"

* * *

The Doctor, Lilith, and Rose were placed in hefty sets of manacles.

"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis." The man, the Editor, said. "The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."

"So all the people on Earth are like, slaves." Rose said with a glare.

"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

"Yes." the Doctor and Lilith said together.

The Editor frowned. "Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"

"Yes."

"You're no fun."

"Let me out of these manacles," the Doctor growled. "You'll find out how much fun I am."

"Oh, he's tough, isn't he? But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

"You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must have noticed." Rose said.

The Editor motioned to the group of people still working. "From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it." He turned back to face them. "Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

Lilith spotted Cathica through a window behind the Editor's back. 'You see her?'

'I see her.'

"What about you?" Rose asked. You're not a Jagra…a…belly."

"Jagrafess." Lilith corrected.

"Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."

"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."

Rose looked at him incredulously. "But you couldn't have done this all on your own."

The Editor chuckled. "No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."

"No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?" the Doctor asked.

"Three thousand years." The Editor told him.

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature; channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool; it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system."

"But that's why you're so dangerous." The Editor said. "Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" He snapped his fingers and energy surged through the manacles, causing the trio to convulse.

"Leave them alone!" the Doctor yelled. "I'm the Doctor, they're Rose Tyler and Lilith Smith! We're nothing; we're just wandering!"

"Tell me who you are!"

"He just said!" Lilith snapped.

"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly—" He stopped. The Jagrafess growled. "Time Lords."

What?

"What?"

"Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in their travelling machine. Oh, with the little human girl from long ago." The Editor stroked Rose's cheek.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Time travel."

The Doctor glared at him. "Someone's been telling you lies."

The Editor raised his eyebrows. "Young master Adam Mitchell?" He snapped, calling up a holographic monitor showing Adam in the broadcast chair.

"Oh, my God. His head!" Rose breathed

"Tyler," Lilith growled. "You're pet human is getting us in trouble."

"What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done?" the Doctor demanded. "They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything."

"And through him, I know everything about you." The Editor said smugly. "Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S. TARDIS."

"Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first." the Doctor hissed.

"Die all you like." The Editor shrugged. "I don't need you. I've got the key."

On the screen, the TARDIS key levitated out from Adam's pocket.

"You and your boyfriends!" the Doctor hissed at Rose.

"Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history."

"And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie." Unbeknownst to the Editor, the Doctor was aiming his words at the eavesdropping journalist. "They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold. "

Lilith watched as Cathica left.

"We could prevent mankind from ever developing." The Editor continued, ignoring the Time Lord. Suddenly, alarms started going off. Lilith grinned; Cathica got the message. "What's happening?"

The Jagrafess screeched. The beam that connected Adam to the computer receded and the key dropped to the floor.

"Someone's disengaged the safety." He calls the image up on the holo-screen. "Who's that?"

"It's Cathica." Rose gasped.

"And she's thinking. She's using what she knows." the Doctor said.

"Terminate her access." The Editor ordered the puppets.

"Everything I told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that." The icicles and frost were starting to melt. "It's getting hot."

"I said, terminate. Burn out her mind." The Editor growled at Suki's corpse.

Alarms kept blaring, the Jagrafess kept, screeching, and all of the monitors started to burst into sparks as the dead operators collapsed. Rose managed to get out of her manacles.

"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." the Doctor laughed.

The Jagrafess continued to snarl. "Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it." The Editor addressed the creature. "It's impossible, a member of staff with an idea." He takes Suki's seat while Rose tried to free the Doctor. She took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket.

"What do I do?"

"Flick the switch!" Lilith told her. Rose did so, and the manacles holding the Doctor and Lilith snapped open.

"Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty?" the Doctor said with a manic smile. "Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!"

They darted away. "You two get to the elevator, I'll go grab Cathica." Lilith said.

The Doctor nodded, grabbed Rose's hand, and they parted ways. Lilith ran for the broadcast area as chunks of ice fell from the ceiling, the entire satellite shudders and the Jagrafess's growl echoed through the rooms.

Lilith snapped her fingers and closed Cathica's portal. They ran past the platform just as the Jagrafess exploded. The two made it to the elevator just before the door closed. Lilith looked at Rose. "That," she said, "Was one of the grossest things I have ever seen.

* * *

Lilith could see the sun rising over the Earth through the windows as everyone was cleaning up on floor one three nine.

"We're just going to go." the Doctor was saying to Cathica. "I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage."

"You'll have to stay and explain it." Cathica insisted. "No one's going to believe me."

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal."

"What about your friend?" she asked, nodding towards Adam, who was waiting by the TARDIS.

"He's not my friend." the Doctor said darkly.

"Now, don't—" Rose tried. Lilith could almost hear the rest of the sentence. –Do anything you regret.

Wait, did she hear it? Lilith shook the thought out of her head and followed her uncle to the TARDIS.

"I'm all right now. Much better. And I've got the key." The human said, failing to wear a look of innocence. "Look, it's. It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge."

The Doctor pushed Adam into the TARDIS and marched over to the console, immediately bringing the old girl into the Vortex. Adam stood paralyzed under Lilith's death glare. When the ship landed, the Doctor shoved the boy out the doors.

"It's my house. I'm home!" he cried. "Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."

"Oh, believe me, he wanted to." Lilith said darkly.

"Is there something else you want to tell me?" The Doctor questioned with a cold look.

Adam shifted, uncomfortably. "No. What do you mean?"

The Doctor picked up the answering machine. "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." He soniced the phone; it exploded. "That's it, then. See ya."

"How do you mean, see you?" Adam asked.

"As in goodbye."

"But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens."

"What, like this?" The Doctor snapped and the door in Adam's head opened.

"Don't." Adam closed it.

"Don't do what?"

Lilith snapped her fingers with a cruel smile.

"Stop it!"

"All right now, Doctor, Lilith, that's enough. Stop it." Rose said.

Adam looked at her. "Thank you."

She snapped her fingers.

"Oi!"

"Sorry," she giggled. "I couldn't resist."

Adam closed it again.

"The whole of history could have changed because of you." the Doctor said.

"I just wanted to help." Adam protested.

"You were helping yourself." Lilith said snippily.

"And I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."

"Yes I can. 'Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble." the Doctor warned him. "Be average, unseen. Good luck."

"But I want to come with you."

"We only take the best. We've got Rose."

They heard the front door open. Lilith raised her eyebrows. "Sounds like someone's home.

Adam panicked. "Oh, my God. It's me, mum! Don't come in! Wait there a minute!

Lilith went into the ship and helped the Doctor start the dematerialization sequence just as Rose came in. "Sorry your pet human didn't work out." She said to Rose.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'd rather have a goldfish."

Lilith laughed and wrapped her arm around Rose's shoulders. "Were to next, Tyler?"

"Anywhere. Let's go anywhere."


	16. A Lesson in Paradoxes

Lilith watched as the two of them talked in the console room. The Doctor had his feet up and the console and Rose was clearly nervous about something.

"That's what Mum always says." She was saying. "So I was thinking, could we, could we go and see my dad when he was still alive?"

"Where's this come from, all of a sudden?" the Doctor asked.

Rose shrugged. "All right then, if we can't, if it goes against the laws of times or something, then never mind, just leave it."

"No, I can do anything. I'm just more worried about you."

"I want to see him."

"Your wish is my command," the Doctor said. "But be careful what you wish for. November the 7th?"

"1987." Rose confirmed.

The time rotor started up as the Doctor flipped some switches and pulled a lever. The TARDIS landed more gently than usual. Rose was hesitant, but pushed the doors open and walked outside. The Doctor and Lilith followed her out into the open.

"It's so weird." Rose said. "The day my father died. I thought it'd be all sort of grim and stormy. It's just an ordinary day."

"The past is another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight."

"Are you sure about this?" Lilith asked Rose with a frown.

"Yeah." She responded immediately, nodding. The three took off walking, Rose led the to a street corner. Lilith tried to focus on the bending of the timelines that she could see and not on the fact that they had just passed a poster with the words 'Bad Wolf'.

"This is it. Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been to get a wedding present, a vase." Rose sighed. "Mum always said, that stupid vase." A green van came rolling around the corner. "He got out of his car and crossed the road. Oh, God. This is it."

As Pete got out of the van, the Doctor took Rose's hand. A beige car drove round the corner and went into Pete. The driver shields his face with his arm and kept going, leaving Pete and the broken vase in the middle of the road. Pete tries to move.)

"Go to him," the Doctor said. "Quick."

She didn't move.

"Rose, you have to go now." Lilith said.

But she couldn't. She backed away and ran off. Lilith looked up at the Doctor who simply looked back and they went to comfort her. Sirens approached.

"It's too late now." Rose sniffed. By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead. He can't die on his own. Can I try again?"

'No. No, she can't.'

The Doctor put his arm around Rose and led her back to the TARDIS. Lilith followed reluctantly and didn't help him send the ship back a few minutes in time. Outside, The Doctor and Rose look round the corner to see themselves by the curbside. Lilith stood back with her arms crossed.

"Right, that's the first us." the Doctor told Rose. "It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here at the same time. Just be careful they don't see us. Wait till she runs off and they follow, then go to your dad."

"Oh, God. This is it." Lilith heard the previous Rose say.

"I can't do this." Present Rose said.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, but this is the last time we can be here."

Pete started to get out of the van. Lilith saw Rose tense. "Don't!" Rose ran forward, ignoring her friend's protest.

"Rose! No!" the Doctor shouted.

But Rose was already dashing past her earlier self and pushing her father out of the path of the beige car. The vase rolled away, unbroken. The earlier Doctor, Rose, and Lilith vanish.

"Oh Rassilon, Uncle," Lilith breathed. "What have we done?"

* * *

Pete unlocked and pushed open the door to what Lilith could only imagine was the Tyler flat of 1987. "Right, there we go. Sorry about the mess. If you want a cup of tea, the kitchens just down there, milk's in the fridge. Well, it would be, wouldn't it? Where else would you put the milk? Mind you, there's always the windowsill outside. I always thought if someone invented a windowsill with special compartments, you know, one for milk, one for yogurt, make a lot of money out of that. Sell it to students and things." He paused. "I should write that down. Anyway, never mind that; excuse me for a minute. Got to go and change." He went into one of the rooms.

Rose wandered into the main room. "All the stuff mum kept. His stuff. She kept it all packed away in boxes in the cupboard. She used to show me when she'd had a bit to drink. Here it is, on display. Where it should be." She picked up a trophy with a green bottom. "Third prize at the bowling. First two got to go to Didcot. Health drinks." She pointed a pile of jugs on the floor in the corner. "Tonics, mum used to call them. He made his money selling this Vitex stuff. He had all sorts of jobs. He was so clever."

Lilith studied the Doctor's hard face intently. 'I know that look.' She thought to him. 'You're about to say something you know you'll regret, so don't do it.'

Rose finished her little speech and looked up at the silent duo. "Okay, look, I'll tell him you're not my boyfriend."

The Doctor paid neither girl any mind. "When we met, I said 'travel with me in space'. You said no. Then I said 'time machine'."

"It wasn't some big plan. I just saw it happening and I thought, 'I can stop it'."

"I did it again. I picked another stupid ape."

"Oh, here we go." Lilith moaned to herself.

"I should've known. It's not about showing you the universe. It never is. It's about the universe doing something for you."

"So it's okay when you go to other times, and you save people's lives, but not when it's me saving my dad." Rose demanded.

"I know what I'm doing, you don't. Two sets of us being there made that a vulnerable point."

"But he's alive!"

"My entire planet died. The rest of my family. Do you think it never occurred to Lilith or I to go back and save them?"

"But it's not like I've changed history. Not much." Rose insisted. "I mean he's never going to be a world leader. He's not going to start World War Three or anything."

Lilith tried to calm the situation. "Rose, there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation."

"The whole world's different because he's alive." the Doctor added.

"What, would you rather him dead?" Rose snapped.

"I'm not saying that."

"No, I get it! For once, you're not the most important man in my life."

Lilith visibly flinched. That was not the best way to take it.

"Let's see how you get on without me, then. Give me the key. The TARDIS key. If I'm so insignificant, give it me back."

"All right then, I will." Rose shoved the key into his hand.

"You've got what you wanted, so that's goodbye, then." the Doctor said.

"You don't scare me." Rose hissed. "I know how sad you are. You'll be back in a minute, or you'll hang around outside the TARDIS waiting for me. And I'll make you wait a long time!"

The Doctor left and Rose slammed the door behind him. Lilith covered her face with her hands. Pete poked his head out the bedroom door.

"Boyfriend trouble?"

Lilith groaned and shook her head. "I'll just…" she trailed off at the look on Rose's face and slipped quietly out the door.

She chased after the Doctor. "Uncle! Wait!"

He didn't listen. He just kept storming ahead.

"Uncle, please you have to stop. We can't just leave her behind!"

"Why?" the Doctor roared, turning around to face his niece in full Oncoming Storm mode. Lilith didn't even flinch. "Give me one good reason why we shouldn't leave that stupid little ape behind!"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because she's a twenty first century girl and this," she gestured wildly around. "Is the late nineteen eighties, because she's got tech from the future just sitting in her pocket, because it's morally wrong to abandon someone outside their own time. But mainly,"

The Doctor started to turn away, but Lilith grabbed his arm and pulled him back, looking him straight in the stormy eyes. "Mainly because you love her."

The Doctor glared at her. "It makes no difference."

Lilith tried not to be too happy when noting that he did not, in fact, deny that he was in love with Rose Tyler. He pulled his arm from her grip and turned to unlock the TARDIS. But when he pushed the door open, they weren't met with the sight of the console room. It was empty, just the inside of a big, blue box. The TARDIS was gone.

The Doctor's eyes widened in horror. "Rose!" He dashed off towards the church, Lilith right behind him.

* * *

As they ran, the church, and Rose, finally came into view. "Rose!"

Rose turned around.

"Rose! Get in the church!

A large creature with bat-like wings appeared in the sky. It hissed and started to swoop. Rose screamed. The Doctor pushed her to the pavement just in time to avoid the creature's talons.

"Get in the church!" Lilith yelled to the other wedding guests. They all rushed towards the doors, but stopped in their tracks when two more of the creatures appeared.

"Oh, my God. What are they? What are they?" a woman in pink cried.

"Reapers." Lilith spat. A group of people appeared in the doorway.

"Inside!" The Doctor shouted at them.

"Sarah!" one man yelled.

"Stay in there!"

Another man tried to run away, but one of the Reapers pounced on him. Another blocked Sarah's path to the church, but when she screamed, it flew off and attacked on the vicar instead.

"In!" the Doctor and Lilith ushered everyone into the church through all the chaos and slam the doors on the creatures.

"They can't get in. Old windows and doors." the Doctor said. "Okay. The older something is, the stronger it is. What else? Go and check the other doors! Move!"

"What's happening?" Asked the 1987 version of Jackie Tyler. "What are they? What are they?"

"There's been an accident in time. A wound in time. They're like bacteria, taking advantage." the Doctor explained.

"What do you mean, time? What're you jabbering on about, time?"

He whirled around. "Oh, I might've known you'd argue. Jackie, I'm sick of you complaining. I haven't got time for this.

"How do you know my name?" Jackie demanded. "I've never met you in my life!"

"No, and you never will unless I sort this out. Now, if you don't mind, I've waited a long time to say this. Jackie Tyler, do as I say. Go and check the doors!"

"Yes, sir." Jackie muttered. Lilith raised her eyebrows at the Doctor who just grinned back.

"I should have done that ages ago."

A man, the groom, came over. "My dad was out there." He said.

"You can mourn him later. Right now we've got to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive."

"My dad had thi—"

"There's nothing I can do for him." the Doctor cut him off.

"No, but he had this phone thing. I can't get it to work. I keep getting this voice." He handed the Doctor an old fashioned mobile phone.

The Doctor held it up to his ear and laughed. "That's the very first phone call. Alexander Graham Bell. I don't think the telephone's going to be much use."

"But someone must have called the police."

"Police can't help you now. No one can." Lilith said darkly.

"Nothing in this universe can harm those things. Time's been damaged and they've come to sterilize the wound. By consuming everything in sight."

"Is this because…?" Rose trailed off. "Is this my fault?"

The Doctor walked right past her. Lilith gave the human girl a pitying look before following in suit. She put her hand on the Doctor's arm as he stared out the window.

Pete came over. "There's smoke coming up from the city but no sirens. I don't think it's just us. I think these things are all over the place. Maybe the whole world."

A beige car appears at the corner, turns, the driver covered his face and it disappears again. Lilith and the Doctor exchanged looks.

Pete frowned. "Was that a car?"

"It's not important." the Doctor said. "Don't worry about it."

'You don't want him to know, do you? You think you can keep him alive.'

'Not now, Lilith.' The Doctor put up his telepathic walls, keeping Lilith out. She frowned and returned to the main area, passing Pete and Rose having a conversation.

"Rose, you okay?"

"I guess." Rose sighed. "Pete, this is Lilith."

Lilith extended her hand to the ginger man. "Lilith Smith."

"You're from the future too, then?" he asked.

"I'm not really from a specific time, that's what happens when you travel with the Doctor, you never really know."

"Rose said you're his niece?"

Lilith nodded. "That's me. I'm mainly here just to keep him and Rose from getting into to much trouble. It's a hard job, you know. He calls her particularly jeopardy friendly."

"Oi!" Rose protested.

"Mickey!" Someone shouted and a little black boy came running over and attached himself to Rose's legs. Lilith snorted.

"Do you know him?" Pete asked.

"I just didn't recognize him in a suit. You have to let go of me, sweetheart."

"You're always saying that." Lilith chuckled, prying the little boy off her legs. "Come one, Micks."

"He just grabs hold of what's passing and holds on for dear life. God help his poor girlfriend if he ever gets one." Jackie said, coming in. Lilith snorted again and winked at Pete.

"Me and Rose were just talking." He said.

"Oh, yeah? Talking? While the world comes to an end, what do you do? Cling to the youngest blonde."

"Kinda uncalled for, Jackie." Lilith muttered.

"And who're you?" Jackie demanded, airily. "Come on, Mick." She and Mickey left. Pete made to go after her.

"You can't tell her." Lilith said quietly.

"Why?" Pete questioned.

"She means I really don't want you to tell her." Rose told him.

"What, do you don't want people to know?"

"Where I come from, Jackie doesn't know how to work the timer on the video recorder."

"I showed her that last week." Pete said; Rose nodded. "Point taken."

* * *

The Doctor was sitting by where the choir stands with the baby Rose. "Now, Rose you're not going to bring about the end of the world, are you? Are you?"

Lilith rolled her eyes and shook her head, but followed elder Rose as she approached.

"Jackie gave her to me to look after." the Doctor said, not taking his eyes off the baby. "How times change."

"I'd better be careful. I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey like a mother chicken." Rose said, reaching to hold the child

"No." Lilith held her back. "Don't touch the baby. You're both the same person. That's a paradox, and we don't want a paradox happening, not with freaking Reapers outside. Anything new, any disturbance in time makes them stronger. A paradox might let them in."

"Can't do anything right, can I?" Rose sighed.

"Since you ask, no. So, don't touch the baby." the Doctor said.

'Rude.'

"I'm not stupid."

"You could have fooled me."

'RUDE.'

The Doctor sighed. "All right, I'm sorry. I wasn't really going to leave you on your own."

"I know." Rose said.

"But between three of us, I haven't got a plan. No idea. No way out."

"You'll think of something."

"The entire Earth's being sterilized. This, and other places like it, are all that's left of the human race. We might hold out for a while, but nothing can stop those creatures. They'll get through in the end. The walls aren't that old. And there's nothing I can do to stop them. There used to be laws stopping this kind of thing from happening. My people would have stopped this. But they're all gone. And now we're going the same way."

"If I'd realized…" Rose cried.

"Just tell me you're sorry."

"I am. I'm sorry." They hugged. Lilith turned away, giving them a moment to themselves.

"Have you got something hot?" Rose asked with a frown. She reached into his inside pocket, pulled out a key and dropped it. It was glowing.

"It's the TARDIS key!" the Doctor exclaimed. He took off his jacket to pick it up safely.

"It's still connected to the TARDIS." Lilith breathed.

The Doctor ran to the front of the room to speak to the entire group. "The inside of my ship was thrown out of the wound but we can use this to bring it back. And once I've got my ship back, then I can mend everything. Now, I just need a bit of power. Has anybody got a battery?"

The groom picked up the mobile phone. "This one big enough?"

"Fantastic. Just need to do a bit of charging up and then we can bring everyone back." He used the sonic screwdriver to charge the battery while Lilith paced the aisle, listening in on everyone's conversations. She tried to focus on the timelines, something that always calmed her down, but now it just made her sick.

The TARDIS started to slowly materialize around the key.

"Right, no one touches that key. Have you got that?" the Doctor announced. "Don't touch it. Anyone touches that key, it'll be, well, zap. Just leave it be and everything will be fine. We'll get out of here, all of us. Stuart, Sarah you're going to get married, just like I said."

"When time gets sorted out…" Rose started.

"Everybody here forgets what happened." the Doctor said. "And don't worry, the thing that you changed will stay changed."

"You mean I'll still be alive," Pete said thickly. "Though I'm meant to be dead. That's why I haven't done anything with my life, why I didn't mean anything."

"It doesn't work like that." Lilith tried.

"Rubbish." The man shook his head. "I'm so useless I couldn't even die properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened."

"This is my fault." Rose insisted.

"No, love. I'm your dad. It's my job for it to be my fault."

"Her dad? How are you her dad?" The four looked up to see Jackie standing by with baby Rose in her arms. "How old were you, twelve? Oh, that's disgusting."

Lilith groaned and the Doctor rolled his eyes and walked away.

"Jacks, listen. This is Rose." Pete said.

Jackie, clearly not understanding, took a step back. "Rose? How sick is that? You give my daughter a second hand name? How many are there? Do you call them all Rose?"

"Oh, for God's sake, look. It's the same Rose!" Pete took baby Rose from Jackie and handed her to Rose.

"No!" Lilith and the Doctor yelled. The Doctor snatched her away too late and gives her back to Jackie. A Reaper appeared inside the Church.

"Everyone, behind me!" the Doctor shouted. Everyone rushed behind the Doctor. "I'm the oldest thing in here." The Reaper dove forward.

"DAD!" Lilith screamed.

The Reaper pounces on the Doctor then flew over the TARDIS, knocking the key with its tail. The TARDIS and the creature vanish, and the key dropped.

Lilith fell to her knees. "No." she cried. "No, please."

Rose ran to pick up the key. "It's cold. The key's cold. Oh, my God, he's dead. This is all my fault. Both of you, all of you, the whole world."

"This is it." One of the women said. "There's nothing we can do. It's the end."

"No." Everyone looked at Lilith who stood and started digging though the pockets of her denim jacket. "The Doctor was wrong."

"How do you mean?" Rose asked.

Lilith apparently found what she was looking for and pulled it out. It was a small gun. "Back on Gallifrey, Time Lords and Ladies were trained to take care of things like this. Trained to get rip of pests like the Reapers." She spat the name. "My Aunt Nyx was one of them and she gave me this."

"You're going to shoot those things?" Rose guessed.

Lilith shrugged. "Why not? They're after me next. I may as well take a few with me."

"He said they go after the oldest thing here. How old are you, eighteen?"

"I'm one hundred and twenty six, thank you." Lilith sniffed. "Besides, my father just died before I was born. I'm a living paradox, dessert to these creatures."

As the Reapers start scraping at the stonework outside, Pete watched the car drive around the corner again and again from the vestry window. He went back into the church and over to Rose.

"The Doctor really cared about you. He didn't want you to go through it again, not if there was another way. Now there isn't."

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked.

Lilith shook her head. "Pete, you don't have to do this."

"The car that should have killed me, love. It's here. The Doctor and Lilith both worked it out way back, but he, er, he tried to protect me. Still, he's not in charge anymore. I am."

"But you can't." Rose protested.

"Who am I, love?"

"My daddy."

"Jackie," he said to his wife. "Look at her. She's ours."

"Oh," Jackie breathed. "Of course." She hugged the weeping Rose.

"I'm meant to be dead, Jackie." Pete said. "You're going to get rid of me at last."

"Don't say that."

"For once in your life, trust me. It's got be done. You've got to survive, because you've got to bring up our daughter." He turned to Rose. "I never read you those bedtime stories. I never took you on those picnics. I was never there for you."

"You would have been."

"But I can do this for you. I can be a proper dad to you now."

"But it's not fair."

Pete put his hand on her cheek. "I've had all these extra hours. No one else in the world has ever had that. And on top of that, I got to see you. And you're beautiful. How lucky am I, eh? So, come on, do as your dad says. You going to be there for me, love?" Rose nodded. "Thanks for saving me."

Pete took the vase and ran out into the street where the car was waiting to hit him. The vase fell to the ground and shattered.

"Go to him. Quick." The Doctor urged Rose. She ran to her dying father's side.

Lilith hugged the Doctor tightly, refusing to say a word, and then retreated to the ship that sat just on the other side of the road.

She heard Rose whisper the words she was thinking to herself.

"I love you, Dad."


	17. The Truth Comes Out

Once the TARDIS was safely in the Time Vortex, Lilith made a beeline for the library and hid herself in a book. Rassilon, she messed up. And there was no going back from this one. No erasing memories. She was stuck with the clean up this time.

"We need to talk." The Doctor said from the doorway.

"What about?" Lilith asked with false innocence dripping from her voice. He frowned at her and she sighed. "What about?"

"I don't remember anything that happened after the reaper got me," the Doctor said, sitting next to the young Time Lady. "But what I do remember is what you yelled before it did."

DAD!

Lilith closed her book and put it on the floor. "You weren't supposed to find out like that."

"And how was I supposed to find out that the girl I thought was my niece for years is actually my daughter?" the Doctor laughed humorlessly. "Who are you, Lilith? Who are you really? Why are you here? Why did you lie?"

Lilith looked at him with an expression that said she was seeing someone else. "My name is Lilithanadir Jacqueline Tyler-Lungbarrow. I'm your and Rose's daughter from the future."

The Doctor stared at Lilith in utter shock and disbelief. "Mine and Rose's…? That's not possible."

Lilith snorted. "Mom eats impossible for breakfast. With a side of Time Vortex."

"Time—?"

"Don't ask. Do you really want to know all this? You'll have to forget it anyway."

"Just tell me." The Doctor said.

Lilith bit her lip. "There's not much to tell. You remembered me being here so I came to close the time loop."

"We must have told you stories about what we did, though. You know everything before it's going to happen."

"Some stuff." The younger Gallifreyan shrugged. "But you locked away most of my memories about what happens. I don't remember until after the fact."

"So you know two of my incarnations then."

"Nope, three. You regenerated when I was fifty. Nearly took me, Mom, and the old girl with you."

The Doctor blanched. "Wouldn't Rose be dead by the time you were fifty?"

"You'd be surprised." Lilith laughed. "She's got a tendency to survive when she's supposed to die. Not like Uncle Jack, of course. He's a whole different can of worms. Jack's my godfather. You'll meet him in a month or so."

The Doctor shook his head. "You're being deliberately confusing."

"Nah, that's just my life." Lilith shrugged. "It's all wibbly wobbly timey wimey."

"Who said that?" the Time Lord asked, making a face.

"You did." She said. The Doctor looked horrified at the thought, making Lilith laugh. "That's exactly how I thought you'd react."

He shook his head, and then paused. "Tyler-Lungbarrow?"

"Ah, that's the most important question, isn't it? Does she love me back?"

"Lilith."

"She does, you know. Even in this incarnation, she loves you."

"What, this—?"

Lilith held up her hand. "If you say 'daft face', I'm gonna smack you. Of course she does. Your face has nothing to do with it."

"So I know she loves me," the Doctor sighed. "I just can't remember that she does."

"No, you can't remember any of this conversation. You can't remember I called you dad either. You're not supposed to find out for years."

"When do you tell me?" the Doctor asked.

Lilith put her fingertips to his temples and sighed. "On the worst day of your lives."


	18. Thoughts of a Time Lady 2

Time lines, Lilith knew, were delicate things. That was kept in mind when her father prepared her for going back in time. He had taken precautions, taking everything Lilith knew about the adventures Rose had with the Doctor and locked them away.

But Lilith still knew many things. She wasn't going in blind. She knew that her days with this regeneration of the Doctor were numbered and she knew that the number wasn't as high as she would like it to be.

The circumstances surrounding his regeneration, however, were with the memories tucked into the farthest reaches of Lilith's mind. But the regeneration wasn't what she had been thinking about. It was something a bit more complicated.

Her Uncle Jack.

Lilith knew he'd be traveling with them and she knew it would be soon. She wasn't entirely sure she was ready to deal with him, though. It wasn't the flirting, Lilith had lived with Jack for years and was no stranger to the way he acted towards women (though being on the receiving end of his flirtations would be weird), but the fact that he would have no idea who she was.

Lilith wasn't sure she was ready for that.


	19. The Forsaken Son Part 1

The TARDIS shook back and forth as it flew through space, The Doctor and Lilith frantically messing around with the controls. They were following a small space craft as it hurtled away from them.

"What's the emergency?" Rose asked.

"It's mauve." the Doctor answered,

"Mauve?"

"The universally recognized color for danger." Lilith explained.

Rose frowned, gripping onto the edge of the console. "What happened to red?"

"That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp." the Doctor said. "Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing. It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go."

"And that's safe, is it?" Rose questioned.

"Totally." the Doctor assured her.

The console sparked with a bang. "Reasonably. He should have said reasonably there." Lilith amended. On the monitor, the mauve object slipped into the time vortex. Lilith cursed. "No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"What exactly is this thing?"

"No idea." the Doctor said.

"Then why are we chasing it?"

"It's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the center of London."

"Hold on!" Lilith shouted as the TARDIS gave another violent shake as it materialized. Upon investigation, they had landed in a back alley between two terraces.

"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" the Doctor asked, exiting the ship.

"Five days?" Rose guessed. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

The Doctor made a face. "Of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow." He looked around. "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway."

"And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago." Lilith added. "Maybe a month."

Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "A month? We were right behind it."

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place." the Doctor said, defensively. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"

"How much is a little?"

"A bit."

"Is that exactly a bit?"

"Ish."

"What's the plan, then? Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?"

The Doctor stopped walking and looked at her. "Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask." He showed Rose his psychic paper ID for the occasion.

"Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids." she read."

"It's psychic paper. It tells you—"

"Whatever you want it to tell me," Rose finished for him. "I remember." They came to a door marked Deliveries Only. "Not very Spock, is it, just asking."

The Doctor ignored her comment and turned to Lilith. "Door, music, people. What do you think?"

"I think you should do a scan for alien tech." Rose suggested. "Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you?"

"Yes." Lilith said. The Doctor tolled his eyes and opened the door with the sonic screwdriver, and looks at Rose's Union Flag top.

"Are you sure about that t-shirt?" he asked.

Rose looked down at the shirt. "Too early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin."

The door unlocked and the Doctor stood. "Come on if you're coming. It won't take a minute." He went inside and Lilith followed. They followed a waiter through a bead curtain to where a saxophonist and jazz band is accompanying a woman singing. She was wearing 1940's clothes, Lilith noted.

When the singer finished her song, the Doctor took the woman's place at the microphone. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick." he said. "Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"

There was silence, then laughter.

The Doctor frowned. "Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago." An air raid siren sounded. Everyone starts to leave. "Would've landed quite near here. With a very loud—"

'Um, Uncle?' Lilith pointed to a poster on the wall—Hitler will send no warning!

"Bang."

'We've managed to land during World War Two.'

The Doctor retreated back into the alleyway. "Rose?" he looked around and sighed as Lilith joined him. "You know, one day, just one day, maybe, we're going to meet someone who gets the whole 'don't wander off' thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."

The TARDIS police telephone rang. Both Lilith and the Doctor turned to stare at the time ship in almost awe. The Doctor walked over to it and he opened the small door. "How can you be ringing? What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"

"Really?" Lilith said flatly.

"Don't answer it." Someone said. A girl had come into the alleyway. "It's not for you."

"And how do you know that?" the Doctor asked.

"'Cos I do. And I'm tellin' ya, don't answer it."

"Well, if you know so much, tell me this. How can it be ringing? It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not—"

But the girl was gone.

"She's as good at the disappearing act as you." Lilith muttered. "Say something ominous, then poof. Gone."

The Doctor answered the phone. "Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"

"Mummy?" Came the voice on the other end of the line. "Mummy?"

The Doctor frowned. "Who is this? Who's speaking?"

"Are you my mummy?"

"Who is this?" he repeated.

"Mummy?" Was the answer.

"How did you ring here?" the Doctor demanded. "This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

"Mummy?" The voice cut off, leaving the dial tone.

The Doctor knocked on the TARDIS door. "Rose? Rose, are you in there?"

There was a clattering noise and the Doctor and Lilith looked at each other. "Run?" the latter suggested.

They ran out of the alley.

* * *

A group of children were gathered around an abandoned dinner table, eating the food that the family left when they went into the bomb shelter.

"It's got to be black market." One boy was saying. "You couldn't get all this on coupons."

The girl from the alleyway chided him. "Ernie, how many times? We are guests in this house. We will not make comments of that kind. Washing up."

The children laughed.

"Oh, Nancy." Ernie protested.

"Haven't seen you at one of these before." Nancy said to another young boy.

"He told me about it." The boy said.

"Sleeping rough?" She asked.

"Yes, miss."

Nancy nodded. "All right, then. One slice each, and I want to see everyone chewing properly."

A plate of slices of meat was handed around the table.

"Thank you, miss." Another boy grinned.

Ernie took the plate. "Thanks, miss."

"Thank you, miss." the young boy took his turn and passed the plate to the next person at the table.

"Thanks, miss!" Lilith chirped.

The children all paniced when they saw the Doctor leaning against the doorway.

"It's all right." Nancy assured them. "Everybody stay where you are! Back in your seats, they shouldn't be here either."

"So, guys, what's the story?" Lilith asked.

"What do you mean?" Ernie demanded.

She looked at each of them in turn. "You're homeless, right? Living rough?"

"Why do you want to know that?" One of the boys questioned. "Are you a copper? Is he?"

"Of course I'm not a cop, do I look like one? He's not either. What would the police do with you guys anyway? Arrest you for starving?" the kids all laughed. "It's 1941, isn't it? You shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated. Sent me to a farm." Another boy said.

"So why'd you come back?" the Doctor asked.

"There was a man there." The boy shrugged.

"Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago."

"Shut up," Ernie said. "It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food."

"Yeah. Nancy always gets the best food for us."

Lilith turned to the girl in question. "So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?"

"What is?"

"As soon as the sirens go off, you find a big family meal still warm on the table. With everyone down in the air raid shelter, it's a feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as they say, as long as the bombs don't get you."

"Something wrong with that?" Nancy asked defensively

The Time Lady chuckled. "Wrong with it? It's genius. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical."

"Why'd you follow me? What do you want?"

"We want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call." the Doctor said. "You seem to be the one to ask."

"I did you a favor." Nancy told him. "I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you."

"Great, thanks." the Doctor said sarcastically. "And I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving."

The kids laughed again and Lilith rolled her eyes.

"No blondes, no flags. Anything else before you leave?"

"Yeah, actually." Lilith said, giving her the Doctor a 'shut up' look. "We've been looking for something. It would've fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, it wouldn't have exploded, probably would have just buried itself in the ground somewhere."

She noticed that Nancy looked particularly uncomfortable. A knock on the door made everyone jump.

"Mummy?" Called the voice of a child. "Are you in there, mummy?"

'That's the child that was on the phone.' The Doctor told Lilith telepathically. Lilith glanced out of the window. There stood a young boy in the gas mask.

"Mummy?"

"Who was the last one in?" Nancy demanded.

"Him." Ernie said, pointing at the Doctor.

"No, they came round the back. Who came in the front?"

"Me." said one of the boys.

"Did you close the door?"

"Er…"

"Did you close the door?" she repeated.

"Mummy? Mummy? Mummy!"

Nancy ran into the hallway and bolted the front door. Lilith frowned. "What are you doing? You can't just leave him out there. It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold.

"I suppose you'd know." the young girl snipped.

"I do actually."

"It's not exactly a child." Nancy said.

"Mummy?" The not-exactly-child asked from the other side of the door.

Nancy went back into the dining room. "Right, everybody out. Across the back garden and under the fence. Now! Go! Move!"

The children grabbed their coats and fled. "Come on, baby, we've got to go, all right? It's just like a game. Just like chasing. Take your coat, go on. Go!" she said to the last child, a girl who couldn't have been older than four.

"Mummy? Mummy? Please let me in, mummy." A little hand poked through the mail slot in the door. Lilith jumped back. "Please let me in, mummy."

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked him.

"Please let me in." The boy begged.

Nancy threw something at the door that broke, and the hand withdrew. "You mustn't let him touch ya!"

"What happens if he touches me?" the Doctor questioned.

"He'll make you like him."

"And what's he like?"

Nancy shook her head. "I've got to go."

"Nancy," Lilith said gently. "What's he like?"

"He's empty." She answered. The phone rang. "It's him. He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw."

The Doctor picked up the phone.

"Are you my mummy?" The boy asked on the other end of the line.

Nancy snatched the phone away from him and put it back on the hook. The radio in the dining room turned on. "Mummy? Please let me in, mummy." Then a clockwork monkey started up. "Mummy, mummy, mummy."

"You stay if you want to." Nancy said and disappeared out the back door.

The boy put his hand through the mail slot again. Lilith noticed a scar on the back of it. "Mummy? Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in."

"Your mummy isn't here." the Doctor said. The radio turned off.

The silhouette of the boy cocked its head. "Are you my mummy?"

"No mummies here. Nobody here but us chickens."

Lilith snorted.

"I'm scared." The boy said.

"Why are those other kids scared of you?" Lilith asked.

"Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs."

"Okay," the Doctor said slowly. "I'm opening the door now."

Lilith backed away. "That might not be such a good idea." The boy pulled back his hand and the Doctor unbolted the door. When he opened it, the boy was gone and the street was deserted. "That's not creepy at all."


	20. The Forsaken Son Part 2

Lilith and the Doctor watched as Nancy hid the food she took from the kitchen of the house kitchen. She stands up to sees them, the Doctor smiled.

"How'd you follow me here?" the girl demanded.

"I'm good at following, me." he shrugged. "Got the nose for it."

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to." Nancy said.

"My nose has special powers."

Lilith rolled her eyes.

"Yeah?" Nancy raised her eyebrows. "That's why it's…"

The Doctor frowned. "What?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing." she paused. "Do your ears have special powers too?"

Lilith snickered. "Satellite dishes."

"What are you trying to say?" the Doctor asked, somewhat insulted.

"Goodnight, Mister." Nancy said pointedly and started to walk away.

"Nancy," Lilith said. "There's something chasing you and the other kids. It looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?" the younger girl looked back at them. "The thing we're looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Nancy shifted uncomfortably. "There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."

"Can you take us there?"

She shook her head. "There's soldiers guarding it, barbed wire; you'll never get through."

"Try me." the Doctor said seriously.

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?" Nancy questioned.

"Sure as sure can be." Lilith assured her.

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."

"And who might that be?" the Doctor asked.

"The Doctor." Nancy answered.

Lilith glanced back at her 'uncle' before asking, "Doctor who?"

* * *

The Doctor used tech-binoculars to scan the area.

"The bomb's under that tarpaulin. They put the fence up over night. See that building?" Nancy pointed to a building a bit off. "The hospital."

"What about it?" Lilith asked.

"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."

"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there." the Doctor nodded towards where the thing had landed.

"Talk to the doctor first."

"Why?"

"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside." Nancy said seriously and started walking away.

"Where're you going?" the Doctor asked her, not looking away from the binoculars.

She looked back. "There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."

"Can I ask you a question? Who did you lose?"

Nancy turned to Lilith. "What?"

"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it." Lilith reasoned.

The young girl sighed. "My little brother, Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just. He just didn't like being on his own."

"What happened?"

"In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened?"

"Amazing." the Doctor said.

"What is?"

"1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here." He chuckled. "A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then do what you've got to do. Save the world." He headed towards the hospital.

Lilith smiled at Nancy. "Take care!" she called after her as she walked away.

In front of the hospital, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open the padlock on the ornate metal gates to the grounds. Inside the long, dark wards, every bed had a very still patient in it. Lilith noticed they were all wearing gasmasks. An elderly doctor appeared, leaning on a walking stick.

"You'll find them everywhere." He said. "In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."

"Yeah, we saw."

"Why are they still wearing gas masks?" the Doctor wondered.

"They're not. Who are you?"

"I'm, er…"

Lilith saved him by asking, "Are you the Doctor?"

"Doctor Constantine. And you are?"

"I'm Lilith Smith and this is my uncle. Nancy sent us."

"Nancy?" Constantine repeated. "That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes." the Doctor nodded.

"What do you know about it?" Constantine asked.

"Nothing. Why I was asking. What do you know?"

"Only what it's done." He motioned around the room.

"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?" Lilith asked.

"None of them were." The human doctor chuckled which turned into coughs. He sat in a chair by the desk.

"You're very sick." the Time Lord doctor noted.

Constantine nodded. "Dying, I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I have my moments."

"Have you examined any of them yet?"

"No."

"Don't touch the flesh." Constantine warned.

"Which one?" the Doctor asked.

"Any one."

The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the nearest patient and scanned, Lilith studied one of the nearby patients, sans-screwdriver.

"Conclusions?" Constantine prompted.

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns."

"Same with this one." Lilith frowned. "Exactly the same."

"This isn't possible." the Doctor said. He crossed the room and examined another person. "This isn't possible."

Constantine shook his head again. "No."

"They've all got the same injuries."

"Yes."

"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand."

"How did this happen?" the Doctor demanded. "How did it start?"

"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim." Constantine said.

"Dead?"

"At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head trauma." the Doctor said.

"No."

"Asphyxiation." Lilith guessed.

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity."

"No."

"All right." the Doctor gave in. "What was the cause of death?"

"There wasn't one. They're not dead." Constantine hits a gatbage basket with his stick and the noise made the patients sit up in their beds. "It's all right. They're harmless." he said when Lilith jumped and the Doctor quickly retreated from beside the bed. "They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."

"And they've just been left here?" Lilith said outraged. "Nobody's doing anything?" The patients laid down again.

"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?" Constantine said.

The Doctor frowned. "Just you? You're the only one here?"

"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor. I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb."

"Probably too late." the Doctor said.

"I know. There are isolated cases." Constantine coughed. "Isolated cases breaking out all over London." the Doctor started to approach him. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again." he insisted.

"Nancy?"

"Jamie." Lilith realized. "The boy is her brother, Jamie."

Constantine nodded. "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she mi…mi…" he looked like he was choking for air. "Mu… mummy. Are you my mummy?"

Lilith and the Doctor watched in horror as, starting with the mouth, Doctor Constantine's face turned into a gasmask. "What the hell was that?" Lilith breathed.

"Hello?" Called a male voice that caused Lilith to stiffen.

"Hello?" Rose.

The Doctor rushed over to the door and the two went into the hallway.

"Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting." the man said. Lilith squeaked, eyes wide. He was so young. "Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you two on the way over."

"He knows. I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." Rose said.

"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock, Miss Smith." Jack walked forward to the ward. Lilith laughed.

The Doctor looked at Rose. "Mister Spock?"

"What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name. Don't you ever get tired of Doctor? Doctor who?"

"Nine centuries in, I'm coping. Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll." he scolded.

"Who's strolling?" Rose asked, following Jack. "I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid."

"What?" Lilith and the Doctor exclaimed simultaneously.

Rose ignored them. "Listen, what's a Chula warship?"

The Doctor frowned. "Chula?"

Jack, using a wrist tricorder, was examining the patients. "This just isn't possible. How did this happen?"

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" the Doctor asked.

Jack looked at him, confused. "What?"

"He said it was a warship." Rose said. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."

"What kind of warship?"

"Does it matter? It's got nothing to do with this." Jack said, sounding agitated.

"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?" the Doctor demanded.

"An ambulance! Look." He produced a hologram of it from his wrist device. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle; love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait—"

"Bait?" Lilith interrupted.

"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."

"You said it was a war ship." Rose accused.

"They have ambulances in wars." Jack said as if it was obvious. "It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am; I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"

"Just a couple more freelancers."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Oh. Should have known. The way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain? Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked,

"Human DNA is being rewritten," he answered. "By an idiot."

"What do you mean?"

Lilith gestured around the room. "Some kind of virus converting humans into these freaky looking gas mask things."

"But why?" the Doctor wondered. "What's the point?"

Suddenly, all of the patients sat up. "Mummy? Mummy?" they all started saying, standing up.

"What's happening?" Rose gasped.

"I don't know." the Doctor said. "Don't let 'em touch you."

"What happens if they touch us?"

"You're looking at it."

The patients all advanced, backing the group of four against a wall. "Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?" they chanted.

As was becoming a habit, Lilith swore in Gallifreyan. "Ah, hell."


	21. Mummy? Part 1

The patients all advanced, backing the group of four against a wall. "Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?" they chanted.

As was becoming a habit, Lilith swore in Gallifreyan. "Ah, hell."

The patients were almost within touching distance. 'I have an idea.' Lilith thought.

"Well try it." Rose said. Lilith stared at her incredulously before shaking it off. I must've said that out loud. She looked straight at one of the patients and said sternly, "Go to your room."

They all froze.

"Go to your room." she repeated. "I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!"

The patients hung their heads in shame and shuffled away back to their beds.

Lilith sighed in relief. "Thank Rassilon that worked. Those would have been really embarrassing last words."

Rose went over to one of the beds. "Why are they all wearing gas masks?" She wondered.

"They're not." Jack said. "Those masks are flesh and bone."

"How was your con supposed to work?" the Doctor asked.

"Simple enough, really." Jack shrugged. "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah." Lilith said, a bit mockingly. "Perfect."

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." Jack laughed, but stopped at the Doctor glare. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

"No, really?" Lilith muttered.

"Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty." Jack insisted.

"Rose," the Doctor said curtly. "Lilith." He nodded to and walked towards the door.

"Are we getting out of here?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "We're going upstairs."

"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living." the fprmer Time Agent continued. "I harmed no one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

"I'll tell you what's happening." the Doctor snapped. "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."

A siren sounded, Rose jumped. "What's that?"

"The all clear." Jack told her.

"I wish." Lilith muttered.

* * *

Lilith and the Doctor were far ahead of the two humans. "Mister Spock?" Jack called.

"Doctor? Lil?" Rose yelled.

The two Gallifreyans were already on the next level. "Have you got a blaster?" the Doctor asked.

"Sure!" Jack answered with a grin and darted up the stairs. They ran up to join the Doctor and Lilith outside a secure metal door.

"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."

"What happened?" Rose asked.

"Hell if we know." Lilith shrugged. "Let's find out. Get it open, Jack."

Rose looked at her. "What's wrong with the sonic screwdriver?"

"Nothing."

Jack disintegrated the lock with his blaster; probably the same one Lilith had tucked away in her coat pocket.

"Sonic blaster, fifty first century." the Doctor noted. "Weapon Factories of Villengard?"

"You've been to the factories?"

"Once." the Doctor took the blaster and examined it.

"Well, they gone now." Jack said, slightly disappointed. "Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

"Like I said. Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."

Lilith snorted. Something every Doctor had in common. Their inane love of bananas.

The observation room was a flat out mess. The glass pane across the room was broken. "What do you think?" the Doctor said to Jack.

"Something got out of here."

"Yeah. And?" he prompted.

"Something powerful. Angry."

"Powerful and angry." the Doctor agreed.

In the actual room, child's crayon drawings were scattered on the floor and walls. "A child? I suppose this explains 'Mummy.'" Jack mused.

"How could a child do this?" Rose motioned to the extensive damage. The Doctor turned on a tape machine.

Constantine's voice played. "Do you know where you are?"

"Are you my mummy?" Jamie asked on the recording.

"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see?"

"Are you my mummy?"

"What do you want? Do you know—?"

"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

"Doctor," Rose said. "I've heard this voice before."

"Me too." he said.

"Mummy?" Jamie's voice continued to repeat.

"Always 'are you my mummy?' Like he doesn't know." she looked at Lilith. "Why doesn't he know?"

Lilith shrugged. "Nancy and Jamie lived on the streets. Maybe Jamie doesn't remember knowing her."

"Are you there, mummy? Mummy? Please, mummy. Mummy."

"Can you sense it?"

"Sense what?" Jack asked the Doctor.

"Coming out of the walls." He responded. "Can you feel it?"

"Mummy?"

"Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?" the Doctor snarked.

Lilith sighed. "When he's stressed, he likes to insult species."

"Lilith, I'm thinking."

"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than." Rose added.

"There are these children living rough round the bombsites. They come out during air raids looking for food." the Doctor began.

"Mummy, please?"

"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med-ship. It was harmless." Jack said again.

The Doctor waved him away. "Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

"Altered how?" Rose asked.

"I'm here!"

"It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." the Doctor gave a small laugh. "It's got the power of a god, and Lilith just sent it to its room."

"Doctor…" Rose said slowly.

"I'm here. Can't you see me?"

"What's that noise?" she asked.

"End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago." Lilith's eyes went wide.

"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?"

"I sent him to his room." The Time Lady realized. "This is his room."

The four turned towards the door. There stood Jamie. "Are you my mummy? Mummy?" He looked right at Rose.

"Doctor?" she said shakily.

"Okay, on my signal make for the door." Jack said. "Now!" He aimed his blaster at the child. Except it wasn't his blaster, it was a banana.

"Mummy?"

The Doctor pulled Jack's blaster from his belt and made a nice square hole in the wall. "Go now! Don't drop the banana!"

"Why not?" Jack cried.

"Good source of potassium!" the Doctor yelled back.

"Give me that!" Jack took back his blaster and used it to repair the hole in the wall. "Digital rewind. Nice switch." he tossed the banana to the Doctor.

"It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate."

Lilith didn't try holding back the giggle that bubbled up. He would.

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"

"Bananas are good." the Doctor shrugged.

The wall started to crack.

"Uncle!" Lilith warned.

"Come on!"

They turned to run, but the patients were coming at them from the other direction chanting, "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

Lilith instinctively reached for her vortex manipulator, just remembereing that she had grabbed it before leaving the TARDIS. But she didn't think she could teleport all three of them out of there. Not with a homemade one.

"Okay." Jack said, aiming the blaster. "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic, er," he pulled out his screwdriver. "Oh, never mind."

"What?" Jack asked.

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."

"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"

"It's sonic! Totally sonic!" the Doctor insisted. "I am soniced up!"

"A sonic what?"

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Oh for Rassilon's sake, it's a sonic screwdriver!"

The child broke through the wall. Rose grabbed Jack's blaster and points it at the floor. "Going down!" She yelled as they fell to the floor below. Jack jumped up and repaired the hole in the ceiling.

"Doctor, are you okay?" Rose asked.

"Could've used a warning." the Doctor mumbled.

Rose crossed her arms. "Oh, the gratitude."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked.

"I do." he said defensively.

Lilith ignored the two men. "See a light switch anywhere around here, Tyler?"

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooh, this could be a little more sonic?"

"What, you've never been bored? "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

Rose found a switch and flicked it on. The patients all sat up in their beds. "Ah, bad idea." Lilith said.

"Door." Jack pointed the blaster at the doors, but nothing happened. "Damn it! It's the special features. They really drain the battery."

"The battery?" Rose repeated as Lilith ushered her through the snow sonic opened door. "That's so lame!"

"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory." Jack looked pointedly at the Doctor.

"Oh, I know. First day I met him, they blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates." Rose said.

"There were Autons! In London!" Lilith protested.

The Doctor joined them. "Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door? The wall didn't stop it!"

"Well, it's got to find us first!" he reasoned. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves." Jack said sarcastically.

"Window."

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."

"And no other exits." Lilith sighed.

"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Sarcasm still dripped from Jack's voice.

The Doctor turned to Lilith. "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"

"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." Jack grinned at Rose, who flushed. Lilith gagged.

"Okay." The Doctor said. "One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

"Yeah. Jack just disappeared."

"Of course he did." Lilith groaned. Damn it, Uncle Jack. "I'll follow him. Be back in a sec." She pressed a button on her vortex manipulator and it followed the most recent teleport feed to Jack's ship.

"What?" Jack gasped when he saw her. "How?"

She held up her wrist. "Homemade vortex transport. Handy, huh?"

"Who are you?" Jack marveled at the tech on her wrist.

"No one super special." Lilith shrugged. "Just Lilith Smith."

"If you can build a vortex manipulator from scratch, you must be pretty extraordinary." Jack said, and then raised his eyebrows at her. "And good with your hands."

Lilith stepped back. "Ok, ground rules. No flirting. A, you really aren't my type. B, it's so wrong. If you knew who I was—" she stopped midsentence and swore at herself.

Jack's face hardened. "Are you from those two years I'm missing?"

Lilith sighed. "No, I'm not from your past. I'm from your future."

He took a second to process the information. "You're not linear with the Doctor and Rose either, are you?" he guessed. Lilith shook her head.

"Nope." she said, popping the p. "Haven't been since he first met me."

"You traveling with them breaks the laws of time, you know." Jack said seriously.

"Who's going to send me back?" Lilith snorted. "Besides, he remembers me being here, so here I am."

Something on the dashboard lit up. "Ah ha." Jack turned back to the ship's controls and pressed a button. "Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."

"How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor questioned over the speaker.

"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill." Jack told him.

"Now there's a coincidence."

"What is?"

"Jamie can Om-Com, too." Lilith said.

"He can?" Rose asked.

"Anything with a speaker grill." the Doctor reiterated. "Even the TARDIS phone."

"What, you mean the child can phone us?"

Jamie's voice suddenly spoke. "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you."

"Doctor, can you hear that?"

"Loud and clear."

"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do." Jack said.

"Coming to find you, mummy."

Jack pressed a few buttons. "Remember this one, Rose?" He pressed another and 'Moonlight Serenade' started playing. Jack turned back to Lilith. "So how did an American end up with two British time travelers?"

"Oh, I'm British too." Lilith said. "I just spent a lot of time training with… with someone American."

"I see." Jack looked at her suspiciously.

"So what do we do until your ship can transport them up here?" she asked.

Jack shrugged. "We wait."

Lilith bit her lip. She sort of wished she was still in the store room with the Doctor and Rose, but she knew that they were having a moment that she didn't really want to intrude on.

The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances.

Future Rose often teased Lilith's father about that; about his 'moves'. A subject that would make him pout and then whisk the three of them away to some ball where he would spend the entire night with Rose to prove a point.

About ten minutes later, Rose and the Doctor (the ninth Doctor, not Lilith's) appeared on the ship standing very close to each other.

"Rose…"

"Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet." Jack said. The two jumped apart, both flushing. Lilith inwardly cursed her godfather for interrupting the moment, but burst out laughing at the Doctor's face. "Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is." the Doctor said.

"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes."

"This is a Chula ship."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."

The Doctor snapped his fingers and a golden glow enveloped his hands.

"They're what fixed my hands up." Rose said. "Jack called them er…"

"Nanogenes." Lilith supplied.

"Nanogenes, yeah,"

"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulkhead's sealed. Check you out for damage; fix any physical flaws. Take us to the crash site." the Doctor said to Jack. "I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-com back online." Jack said. "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."

"We were talking about dancing." the Doctor claimed.

"It didn't look like talking." Jack said knowingly.

"It didn't feel like dancing." Rose murmured.

'Talking about dancing.' Lilith mentally scoffed.

'It's not what it looks like.' the Doctor tried to convince her.

'Really? Cuz it looked like you were about to tell her how you feel. Either that or kiss her.' Lilith smirked at him.

'Quiet, you.'

"So," Rose said conversationally. "You used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?"

"If it makes me sound any better," Jack said. "It's not for the money."

"For what?" she asked.

"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."

"They stole your memories?"

"Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me," he nodded at the Doctor. "And for all I know he's right not to. Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?"

Lilith smiled to herself. Geronimo.


	22. Mummy? Part 2

"There it is." Jack said. "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

"We've got to get past him." the Doctor said.

"Are the words 'distract the guard' heading in my general direction?" Rose asked.

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." The three turned their heads to look at Jack.

"Don't worry," Rose said. "I can handle it."

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him." Jack grinned as he started walking away. "Don't wait up."

Rose stared after him disbelievingly. "Relax, he's a fifty first century guy." the Doctor shrugged. "He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

"How flexible?" she asked.

"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."

"Meaning?"

Lilith snickered. "So many species, so little time."

"What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and… and…

"Dance." the Doctor confirmed with a chuckle. They watched Jack as he dropped to the ground and went after Algy. The two exchanged some words before the latter fell to his knees and his face began turning into a gas mask.

"Jack, tell them to stay back!" Lilith shouted, running to Jack's side.

"You men, stay away!" Jack yelled to the other soldiers."

"The effect's become air-borne," the Doctor said. "Accelerating."

"What's keeping us safe?" Rose asked.

Lilith and the Doctor exchanged glances before answering. "Nothing." Lilith glanced down at the back of her hand, half expecting to see a scar. The air raid sirens started going off.

"Ah, here they come again." Jack said, looking up.

"All we need." Rose sighed. "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"

"Never mind about that." the Doctor said dismissively. "If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?"

"Till nothing, forever, for the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?"

"Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops."

They looked around for the source of the song, following the voice until they found Nancy handcuffed to a table, singing to keep one of the gas mask zombies asleep. The Doctor slipped into the shed and used the sonic to unlock the handcuffs. He led her out to the crash site where Jack and Lilith were pulling away the tarpaulin.

"You see? Just an ambulance." Jack said.

"That's an ambulance?" asked Nancy

"It's hard to explain." Rose said. "It's from another world."

"They've been trying to get in." Jack said, frowning.

"Of course they have. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?" the Doctor questioned.

Jack was keying in the access codes. "The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." There was a bang, sparks, and an alarm. The access panel had a red flashing light. "Didn't happen last time."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. It hadn't crashed last time. There'll be emergency protocols and stuff."

"Doctor!" Rose shouted as the gates on the other side of the crash site started shaking.

"Captain, secure those gates!" the Doctor ordered.

"Why?"

"Just do it! Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire." Nancy said.

"Show Lilith." The Doctor threw Lilith the sonic screwdriver. "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D."

"Reattaches barbed wire. Got it! Come on!" Lilith grabbed Nancy's hand and the girl let her to the hole in the barbed wire. Lilith used the sonic and started to fix it.

"Who are you? Who are any of you?" Nancy asked.

"You'd never believe me if I told you." Lilith said, focusing in the barbed wire.

"Your friend just told me that was an ambulance from another world. There are people running around with gas mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me, do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"

Lilith paused. "We're time travelers from the future."

"Mad, you are." Nancy laughed shakily.

"Nope. We've got a time travel machine and everything."

"It's not that. All right, you've got a time travel machine. I believe you. Believe anything, me. But what future?"

The elder of the two put down the sonic screwdriver. "Nancy, this isn't the end. I know how it looks, but it's not the end of the world. Not even close."

"How can you say that? Look at it." Nancy nodded towards the bomb dropping planes.

"I may not sound like it, but I was born in this city. I'm from here, just about a century away."

"From here?"

"I'm a Londoner from the future."

"But, but you're not…" she trailed off.

Lilith raised her eyebrows. "What, British?"

"German."

"Nancy, the Germans don't come here. They don't win. Don't tell anyone I told you so, especially not the Doctor, but you know what? You win this war."

"We win?" Nancy repeated, almost smiling.

Lilith grinned. "Come on!" She took the younger girl's hand again and they went back to the Chula ambulance, which they had gotten open.

"It's empty. Look at it." Jack was saying.

The Doctor had his arms crossed and was glared irritated at the captain. "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know."

"Yes, you do." Lilith said, pointing at her hands.

"Nanogenes!"

The Doctor nodded. "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough Nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

Jack paled. "Oh, God."

"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the Nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask."

"And they brought him back to life?" Rose marveled. "They can do that?"

"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter, nature's way of keeping meat fresh, nothing to a Nanogene. One problem, though, these Nanogenes— they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know." Jack cried.

'Easy, Uncle. He's just a human.' Lilith telepathically said.

The Doctor ignored her and started to work on the ambulance. The gas mask patients from the hospital began to approach. "Mummy. Mummy."

"Lilith!"

"Stay calm, Nancy."

"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?" Rose asked.

"The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol." said the Doctor.

"But the gas mask people aren't troops."

"They are now. This is a battlefield ambulance. The Nanogenes don't just fix you up; they get you ready for the front line. Equip you. Program you."

"That's why the child's so strong." Rose guessed. "Why it could do that phoning thing."

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes." the Doctor stood. "All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

The gas mask people surrounded them, outside the barbed wire.

"Why don't they attack?" Jack wondered.

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."

"The child?"

"Jamie." Lilith and Nancy corrected.

Jack looked at them. "What?"

"Not the child." Nancy said. "Jamie."

"So how long until the bomb falls?" Rose asked.

"Any second." Jack's voice was tense.

"What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?" the Doctor teased sharply.

"He's just a little boy." Nancy whispered. "He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."

"I know." Lilith said. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mom. And this boy can."

"So what're we going to do?" Rose demanded.

"I don't know." the Doctor said.

"It's my fault." Nancy cried.

"No." the Doctor said kindly.

"It is." she nodded. "It's all my fault."

"How can it be your—"

"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy." the gas mask people began to chorus around them.

The Doctor frowned. "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes? "

The bombs were getting steadily closer. "Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds." Jack said.

"You can teleport us out." Rose suggested.

"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols."

"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do." the Doctor said. Jack vanished, and he turned back to Nancy. "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he?" Nancy shook her head. "A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him."

The bombsite gate opened and Jamie stood there. "Are you my mummy?"

"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop."

"Mummy?"

"Tell him, Nancy," Lilith put a hand on her shoulder. "The future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."

Nancy and Jamie walked towards each other. "Are you my mummy?" Jamie asked. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy." Nancy breathed.

"Mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

She knelt down in front of him. "I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes."

"Are you my mummy?"

"He doesn't understand." the Doctor said. "There's not enough of him left."

"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." Nancy hugged Jamie and a cloud of Nanogenes surrounded them.

Lilith's jaw dropped and Rose's eyes widened. "What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should—"

The Doctor shushed her. "Come on, please. Come on, you clever little Nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."

"What's happening?"

"The Nanogenes. They're recognizing that Jamie and Nancy have the same DNA." Lilith said.

Jamie let go and Nancy fell back. The Doctor, Lilith, and Rose rushed over. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." the Doctor said, removing Jamie's gas mask. "Ha, ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music— you're going to love it." He picked up the boy and swung him around.

"What happened?" Nancy asked.

"The Nanogenes recognized the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha, ha! Mother knows best!"

"Oh, Jamie." Nancy cried, pulling her son close.

"Doctor, that bomb." Rose warned.

"Taken care of it." the Doctor said.

"How?"

"Psychology."

The bomb hurtled towards them, and got caught in Jack's tractor beam just before impact. Jack was sitting astride the bomb. "Doctor!"

"Good lad!" the Doctor shouted.

"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long." Jack shouted.

"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"

"Rose?" Jack called.

"Yeah?" She called back,

"Goodbye." Jack and the bomb vanish, and then reappeared a moment later. "By the way, love the t-shirt." They vanish again. The spaceship sucked up the light beam and flies off. The Doctor summoned some Nanogenes to himself.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

"Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose?" the Doctor grinned at her. "I'll give you moves." He threw the Nanogenes to the waiting gas mask people, who all fell to the ground. "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!" the Doctor yelled ecstatically.

The people all stood up again, back to normal. The Doctor bounded over to where Doctor Constantine was too talk. Lilith watched him with a big smile on her face. She rarely ever got to see her father so happy. It wasn't every day that everybody lives.

"Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state!" the Doctor announced. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

"Usually?" Lilith asked, winking at Rose who finished, "The first in line."

The trio started back towards the TARDIS.

"The Nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!" the Doctor grinned.

"Look at you," Rose laughed. "Beaming away like you're Father Christmas.

"Who says I'm not, red-bicycle-when-you-were-twelve?"

Rose paused. "What?"

"And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this. Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire."

"What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?"

Lilith sighed. "I got this."

* * *

"Okay then," Jack was saying. "Think we'd better initiate emergency protocol four one seven." A martini appears. Jack drank it. "Ooh, a little too much vermouth. See if I come here again. Funny thing, last time I was sentenced to death—"

"You ordered four hyper-vodkas for your breakfast." Lilith interrupted. Jack spun around and stared at her. "All a bit of a blur after that. Woke up in bed with both of your executioners. Lovely couple. They stayed in touch. Can't say that about most executioners." Lilith grinned and offered him her hand. "Coming, Uncle Jack?"

He grinned back and put his hand over her vortex manipulator. In a flash, they were back on the TARDIS where Rose and the Doctor were attempting to do some sort of dance.

"Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson."

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." The Doctor frowned.

"Forgetting in your old age, obviously." Lilith teased. Rose came over to greet them, while the Doctor started up the ship. "Welcome to the TARDIS."

"Much bigger on the inside." Jack said weakly.

"You'd better be."

"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in." Rose said with a smile, taking Jack's hand.

"Rose! I've just remembered!" the Doctor said.

"What?"

The music changes from waltz to swing. "I can dance! I can dance!"

"Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance."

"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?"

Rose danced with the Doctor while Jack and Lilith watched. This style, the Doctor can do. Lilith leaned her head on her godfather's shoulder. "You're parents?" Jack guessed in a voice only she could hear.

"And aren't they sweet?" Lilith beamed as Jack offered her his hand. They danced to the music.

Life in the TADIS can't get much better than this.


	23. Telepthy

At one point, Lilith thought that the Doctor would be subtle when he brought it up.

In hindsight, she should've known better.

"Are you aware you're telepathic?"

Lilith face palmed.

Rose looked up from the book she was reading. "I'm what?"

"Telepathic." the Doctor repeated.

"Like you and Lilith? Is that possible?"

Lilith nodded. "Highly unlikely, like ten thousand to one chance, but possible. You've been projecting some of your thoughts and feelings and we've been picking up on them."

Rose's eyes widened and she flushed. Lilith chuckled. "Not that kind of stuff, don't worry, Tyler."

"So what does this mean, then?"

"It means," the Doctor said. "That I should teach you how to put up telepathic walls. That way you don't have to worry about your stray thoughts ending up in another telepath's head."

"Or I could teach you how to control your telepathy." Lilith offered. "So that you can use it when you want to. It comes in handy sometimes. Especially when you're jeopardy friendly."

"Oi!"

"Like when you get arrested for wearing pink," Lilith continued, ignoring Rose's protest. "You could just send out a mental SOS and we'd be there to bust you out in a snap."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Because I'm the only one who gets arrested." She looked pointedly at the Doctor, who shrugged.

"Matriarchal planets. It's not my fault I'm male."

Lilith laughed. "I think we've strayed from the point of this conversation.

Rose thought for a moment. "Yeah, I guess it would be cool to learn telepathy."

"Um, guys? An alarm is going off!" Jack's voice yelled.

The Doctor sighed and Lilith laughed. "Later, then, Tyler. Let's go have some fun."


	24. Return of Margaret Part 1

The TARDIS had landed in Cardiff a few minutes earlier for a refuel. Rose, Lilith, and Jack were relaxing in the console room while the Doctor was up a ladder mending something. There was a knock on the door.

"I got it." Jack said and got up to answer the door. "Who the hell are you?"

"What do you mean, who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?" Asked a familiar voice. Lilith perked up.

"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you're selling, we're not buying."

"Get out of my way!" Mickey said harshly.

"Don't tell me. This must be Mickey." Jack said, closing the door.

The Doctor looked over with a ridiculous flashing light on his forehead. "Here comes trouble! How're you doing, Ricky boy?"

"It's Mickey!" Mickey snapped.

Rose got up and went over to Mickey. "Don't listen to him, he's winding you up."

"You look fantastic." Rose and Mickey hugged.

"Good to see you too, Micks." Lilith called, not looking up from her book.

"Aw, sweet, look at these two." Jack said. "How come I never get any of that?"

"Buy me a drink first." the Doctor quipped.

"Lilith?"

Lilith shook her head. "I told you, Jack, you've got the wrong— what do the Brits say? — bits."

Jack chuckled. "Lesbians, the bane of my existence."

"Did you manage to find it?" Rose asked Mickey,

Mickey tore his eyes away from the bantering duo. "There you go." He handed over Rose's passport.

"I can go anywhere now."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I told you, you don't need a passport."

"It's all very well going to Platform One and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil? I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything." Rose shot the Doctor her signature tongue-touched grin.

"Sounds like your staying, then." Mickey said. "So, what're you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with big-ears up there—"

"Oi!" the Doctor protested.

Lilith snickered. "Satellite dishes."

"Look in the mirror." Mickey looked back at Rose. "But this guy, I don't know, he's kind of…"

"Handsome?" Jack offered.

"More like cheesy."

The captain frowned. "Early twenty first Century slang. Is cheesy good or bad?"

"It's bad." Mickey answered.

"But bad means good, isn't that right?"

"We just stopped off. We need to refuel." Rose said. "The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions."

"The rift was healed back in 1869." the Doctor began.

"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth," Rose continued. "Because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway but she saved the world and closed it."

"But closing a rift always leaves a scar, and that scar generates energy," Jack added. "Harmless to the human race."

"But perfect for the TARDIS." Lilith chirped. "So just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar."

"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation."

"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!"

"Into time!"

"And space!" The four all laughed in unison.

Mickey stared at them. "My God, have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, yes."

"Yeah."

"Yep!"

"Should take another twenty four hours, which means we've got time to kill." the Doctor said, pushing open the doors to the TARDIS.

"That old lady's staring." Mickey noted.

"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box." Jack chuckled.

"What are you captain of, the Innuendo Squad?"

Jack made a gesture and started to walk away.

"Wait, the TARDIS, we can't just leave it. Doesn't it get noticed?" Mickey asked.

Jack turned back around. "Yeah, what's with the police box? Why does it look like that?"

"It's a cloaking device." Rose said.

"It's called a chameleon circuit. The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something." the Doctor explained.

"But the pilot landed her the 1960s, she disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck." Lilith elbowed the Doctor.

"So it copied a real thing? There actually was police boxes?"

"Yeah, on street corners. Phone for help before they had radios and mobiles. If they arrested someone, they could shove them inside till help came, like a little prison cell."

"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack wondered.

The Doctor shrugged. "I like it, don't you?"

"I love it." Rose said.

"But that's what I meant. There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?" Mickey asked.

"Micks, let me tell you something about the human race." Lilith said. "You put a mysterious blue box in the middle of freaking England, what do they do? Just walk past it. Now, quit the nagging and let's go and explore."

"What's the plan?" Rose asked.

The Doctor linked his arm through hers. "I don't know. Cardiff, early twenty first century, and the wind's coming from the east. Trust me. Safest place in the universe."

'I really wish you hadn't said that.'

They went to a restaurant on a small jetty. The five of them picked a table by the window and Jack spent the time regaling them with stories of his adventures. "I swear, six feet tall and with big tusks!"

"You're lying through your teeth!" the Doctor accused.

"I'd have gone bonkers!" Rose laughed. "That's the word - bonkers!"

"I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks and I mean tusks! And it's woken, and it's not happy. And we're standing there, fifteen of us, naked—"

"Naked?" Lilith shook her head, amused.

"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me." Jack continued. And then it roars, and we are running. Oh my God, we are running! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say—"

"I knew we should've turned left!" Mickey finished.

"That's my line!"

"I don't believe you." Rose hit Jack on the arm playfully. "I don't believe a word you say ever. That is so brilliant. Did you ever get your clothes back?"

Lilith felt a wave of shock and worry wash over her. She looked over at the Doctor who had snatched a newspaper from the man at the next table and read it.)

'What's wrong?' Lilith questioned.

The Doctor held up the front page of the Western Mail, with a picture that a photographer took of a familiar large woman, Margret the Slitheen. "And I was having such a nice day."

* * *

"According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit." Jack informed the group. "Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic fifty seven fifty six strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, Lilith, you go face to face. That'll designate Exit One; I'll cover Exit Two. Rose, you Exit Three. Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?"

"Excuse me," the Doctor said. "Who's in charge?"

"Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir." Jack retorted sarcastically.

"Right, here's the plan." He paused. "Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"

"Present arms." They each pulled out a cell phone. "Speed dial?"

"Yup." the Doctor nodded.

"Ready." Rose confirmed.

"All set." Lilith added.

"Check." Mickey said.

Jack grinned. "See you in hell."

The Doctor and Lilith made their way to the Mayor's office. "Hello, We've come to see the Lord Mayor." He said to the young man sitting at a desk by the door.

"Have you got an appointment?" the young man asked.

"No, just old friends passing by. Bit of a surprise. Can't wait to see her face."

"Well, she's just having a cup of tea."

"Just go in there and tell her the Doctor would like to see her." the Doctor said.

"Doctor who?" That made Lilith smile.

"Just the Doctor. Tell her exactly that. The Doctor."

"Hang on a tick."

The man went into the Mayor's office. A teacup smashes on the floor and he came out again. "The Lord Mayor says thank you for popping by. She'd love to have a chat, but, er, she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week?"

"She's climbing out of the window, isn't she?" Lilith guessed.

The young man gulped and nodded. "Yes, she is."

Lilith and the Doctor rushed into the room and onto the balcony. "Slitheen heading north." the Doctor reported into his phone. They ran back inside and down the halls.

When they ran into Rose and Jack outside, Margaret was getting away.

"Who's on Exit Four?" Jack asked.

"That was Mickey!"

"Here I am." Mickey panted, stumbling out.

"Mickey the idiot."

"Oh, be fair." Rose said. "She's not exactly going to outrun us, is she?"

Margaret vanished.

"She's got a teleport! That's cheating!" Jack shouted. "Now we're never going to get her."

"Oh, the Doctor's very good at teleports."

The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver and Margaret reappeared, running towards them. She turned around and ran the other way, teleporting again, but the Doctor buzzed the sonic and she came back again. She tried one more time, but just reappeared closer.

"I could do this all day." the Doctor said.

"This is persecution." Margaret insisted. "Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

"You tried to kill us and destroy this entire planet."

"Apart from that." Margaret said dismissively.

Lilith stared at her incredulously. "Are you serious?"

The Doctor shook his head and led Margaret back into the building. "So, you're a Slitheen, you're on Earth, you're trapped. Your family get killed but you teleport out just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station. But what for?"

"A philanthropic gesture. I've learnt the error of my ways." Margaret said haughtily.

Lilith crossed her arms. "Right, and it just so happens to be right on top of the rift."

"What rift would that be?"

"A rift in space and time. If this power station went into meltdown, the entire planet would go," Jack made a sucking noise, then an explosion noise.

"This station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity." the Doctor said.

"Didn't anyone notice?" Rose asked. "Isn't there someone in London checking this sort of stuff?"

"We're in Cardiff. London doesn't care. The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice." Margaret paused and frowned. "Oh. I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native."

"But why would she do that? A great big explosion, she'd only end up killing herself." Mickey said.

"She's got a name, you know." Margaret snapped.

Mickey rolled his eyes. "She's not even a she, she's a thing."

"Oh, but she's clever." The Doctor pulled the middle section out of the model and turned it over to reveal electronics. "Fantastic."

"Whoa." Lilith breathed,

Jack's eye widened. "Is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator? Genius! You didn't build this?"

"I have my hobbies." Margaret said with false modesty. "A little tinkering."

"No, no, no. I mean you really didn't build this. Way beyond you."

"I bet she stole it." Mickey muttered.

"It fell into my hands."

"Is it a weapon?" Rose questioned.

Jack put the extrapolator on the floor. "It's transport. You see, if the reactor blows, the rift opens. Phenomenal cosmic disaster. But this thing shrouds you in a force field. You have this energy bubble, so you're safe. Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top, and ride the concussion all the way out of the solar system."

"It's a surfboard." Mickey concluded.

"A pan-dimensional surfboard, yeah." Jack said.

"And it would've worked. I'd have surfed away from this dead end dump and back to civilization." Margret snapped.

"Yeah, if it weren't for us meddling kids." Lilith smirked.

"Really, Lil?"

"You'd blow up a whole planet just to get a lift?" Mickey asked the Slitheen, disbelievingly.

"Like stepping on an anthill." She confirmed.

"How'd you think of the name?" the Doctor asked.

Margaret blinked. "What, Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh."

The TARDIS translation matrix translated those two words for Lilith and she shivered.

"I know, but how did you think of it?"

Margaret shrugged. "I chose it at random, that's all. I don't know. It just sounded good. Does it matter?"

"Blaidd Drwg."

"What's it mean?"

"Bad Wolf." the Doctor said.

Bad Wolf.

Rose frowned. "But I've heard that before. Bad Wolf. I've heard that lots of times."

"Everywhere we go, two words following us. Bad Wolf."

"How can they be following us?" Rose's voice was a bit panicky.

She called herself the Bad Wolf. She was beautiful; she was terrifying.

The Doctor was silent for a moment. "Nah, just a coincidence. Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Never mind. Things to do. Margaret, we're going to take you home."

'What the hell was that?' Lilith demanded.

The Doctor shot her a look. 'Later, Lilith.'

"Hold on," Jack said. "Isn't that the easy option, like letting her go?"

"I don't believe it!" Rose cheered. "We actually get to go to Raxa. Wait a minute! Raxacor…"

"Raxacoricofallapatorius." Lilith supplied.

"Raxacorico…"

"Fallapatorius." the Doctor finished.

"Raxacoricofallapatorius." Rose grinned and the Doctor hugged her. "That's it! I did it!"

"They have the death penalty." Margaret protested. "The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty with no chance of appeal. According to the statutes of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Doctor? Take me home and you take me to my death."

"Not my problem." the Doctor said coldly.

* * *

"This ship is impossible." Margaret gasped as they entered the TARDIS. "It's superb. How do you get the outside around the inside?"

"Like I'd give you the secret, yeah." the Doctor muttered.

"I almost feel better about being defeated." The Slitheen said. "I never stood a chance. This is the technology of the gods."

"Don't worship him – He'd make a terrible god. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters." Lilith tried to joke.

The Doctor just looked at her. "Thanks." He said sarcastically. "Jack, how we doing, big fella?"

Jack was trying to connect the extrapolator to the TARDIS. "This extrapolator's top of the range. Where did you get it?"

"Oh, I don't know. Some airlock sale?" Margaret said nonchalantly.

"Must've been a great big heist." Jack mused. "It's stacked with power."

"But we can use it for fuel?" the Doctor asked.

Jack shook his head. "It's not compatible, but it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to go by morning.

"Then we're stuck here overnight." Lilith grumbled.

Margaret continued to study the ship. "I'm in no hurry."

"We've got a prisoner. The police box is really a police box." Rose said.

"You're not just police, though. Since you're taking me to my death. That makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you." Margaret guilted them.

"Well, you deserve it." Mickey snapped.

"You're very quick to say so. You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me, how, exactly?" The hostile alien questioned. "Long night ahead. Let's see who can look me in the eye."

None of them could.


	25. Return of Margaret Part 2

Mickey and Rose had gone outside the TARDIS to talk while, unbeknownst to them, the Doctor watched on the scanner. Jack was watching him and Lilith was pacing back and forth, every so often stopping to glance at the unwelcome guest in their ship.

"So, what's on?" Jack asked.

"Nothing, just, nothing."

Lilith bit her lip. She wasn't a huge fan of Rose spending the night with Mickey either. She had grown up knowing the human as 'Uncle Micks' and seeing him walking away holding hands with the woman Lilith knew to be her future mother was unsettling to say the least.

"I gather it's not always like this, having to wait." Margaret said, breaking the silence. "I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last you have consequences. How does it feel?"

"I didn't butcher them." the Doctor said flatly.

"Don't answer back." Jack chided. "That's what she wants."

"I didn't. What about you?" the Doctor directed the question to Margaret. "You had an emergency teleport. You didn't zap them to safety, did you?"

"It only carries one. I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs." Margaret made a face. The Doctor and Lilith snickered. "It wasn't funny."

"Sorry." Lilith said. "It is a bit funny."

Margaret turned around. "Do I get a last request?"

"Depends what it is." the Doctor said.

"I grew quite fond of my little human life, all those rituals. The brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things. There's a little restaurant just round the Bay. It became quite a favorite of mine."

"Is that what you want?" the Doctor asked. "A last meal?"

"Don't I have rights?"

"Oh, like she's not going to try to escape." Jack scoffed.

"Except I can never escape the Doctor." Margaret said bitterly. "So where's the danger?" she looked at the Doctor. "I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"

"Strong enough." He responded in a hard voice.

"I wonder. I've seen you fight your enemies; now dine with them."

"You won't change my mind." the Doctor said.

"Prove it." Margaret snapped.

The Doctor walked back to the console. "There are people out there. If you slip away just for one second, they'll be in danger."

"Except I've got these." Jack held up two bracelets. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away; she gets zapped by ten thousand volts."

The Doctor turned back and crossed his arms with a forced smile. "Margaret, would you like to come out to dinner? My treat."

"Dinner in bondage." Margaret smirked. "Works for me."

The two aliens left, and Jack was left to carry on mending the TARDIS while Lilith continued to pace silently. "You don't like Mickey either, do you?" Jack asked after a few minutes of nothing but the hum of the TARDIS.

"Nah, Micks is fine. It's just that he hasn't given up on Rose yet. It's just… wrong watching them flirt like that." Lilith said.

"You've got no problem with me flirting with her."

Lilith laughed. "You may not know me, Uncle Jack, but I know you. That's just how you are. You'll flirt up a storm but still follow his 'hands off the blond' rule."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Flirt up a storm?"

"Do you listen to yourself?" The Time Lady asked with a grin. "Mickey wasn't off calling you captain of the Innuendo Squad. Hey, do you want some food? I'm going to head to the kitchen for dinner."

Jack stood, brushing off his hands. "The extrapolator is all hooked up, I'll join you."

They didn't make it though dinner. The TARDIS shook violently, throwing Jack and Lilith to the floor. "What the hell?" They ran to the console room.

The console was sparking and the extrapolator was glowing an ominous blue color. Jack and Lilith looked at each other before running over and desperately trying to disconnect it from the TARDIS.

The Doctor came into the ship. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded.

"It just went crazy!"

"It's the rift, isn't it?" Lilith asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's going to disappear!" The console continued to spark.

"It's the extrapolator." Jack said. I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the TARDIS. I can't stop it!"

"Never mind Cardiff, it's going to rip open the planet!" Lilith exclaimed.

At that moment, Rose entered the TARDIS. "What is it? What's happening?"

Margaret grinned. "Oh, just little me." She took an arm out of her body suit and grabbed Rose. "One wrong move and she snaps like a promise."

"I might've known." the Doctor growled.

"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it. You, fly boy, put the extrapolator at my feet." Jack hesitated and Margaret tightened her grip on Rose's neck. The Doctor nodded and Jack obeyed. "Thank you. Just as I planned."

"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station." Rose choked.

"Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to plan B. To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found. I'm back on schedule, thanks to you."

"The rift's going to convulse." Jack warned. "You'll destroy the whole planet."

"And you with it!" Margaret snarled. She whipped Rose to the side and stood on the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back, boys. Surf's up."

Suddenly, the TARDIS console cracked open and bright light hit Margaret)

"Of course," the Doctor said. "Opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart."

"So sue me."

"It's not just any old power source." Lilith continued, somehow calm. "It's the TARDIS. The Doctor's TARDIS. The best ship in the universe."

"It'll make wonderful scrap." Sneered Margaret.

"What's that light?" Rose asked.

"The heart of the TARDIS. This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."

"It's so bright…" The Slitheen whispered.

"Look at it, Margaret." the Doctor said.

"Beautiful..."

"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."

Margaret relaxed and Rose managed to get free of her grip. Then, Margaret looked up at the Doctor, smiling. "Thank you." She disappeared into the light. The empty bodysuit crumpled onto the extrapolator.

Something sparked and the Doctor leapt into action. "Don't look. Stay there. Close your eyes!" He closed the console. "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down. Shut down! Rose that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right. Lilith, make sure the console is locked.

They all did as they were told. "What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked.

"Must've got burnt up." Jack guessed. "Carried out her own death sentence."

Lilith shook her head. "No, I don't think she's dead."

"Then where'd she go?"

"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS." the Doctor said. "Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic, like I told you, Rose. Gets inside your head. Translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts."

He dug through the bodysuit and pulled out an egg. "Here she is."

"She's an egg?" Rose questioned.

"Regressed to her childhood." the Doctor confirmed.

"She's an egg?" Jack said.

"She can start again. Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"

"Or she might be worse." Lilith muttered.

"That's her choice."

"She's an egg." Rose repeated.

"She's an egg."

Rose's eyes went wide. "Oh, my god. Mickey." She dashed out of the TARDIS and the Doctor made a face. A moment later, she returned to the TARDIS alone.

"We're all powered up. We can leave." the Doctor announced. "Opening the rift filled us up with energy. We can go, if that's all right." He said, looking at Rose.

"Yeah, fine." She mumbled.

"How's Mickey?"

"He's okay. He's gone."

"Do you want to go and find him? We'll wait." the Doctor offered.

Rose sighed. "No need. He deserves better."

The Doctor nodded. "Off we go, then. Always moving on."

"Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius. Now you don't often get to say that." Jack said.

"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery. Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance."

"Hey, Lil," Rose said with a smile. "You were right about one thing."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Great things did happen in Cardiff."

Lilith laughed and slung her arm around Rose's shoulder, letting herself enjoy the moment while it lasted.


	26. Bad Wolf Part 1

_"The only memory I can leave you with is the information you'll need when I regenerate."_

 _"When you, Mom, and Uncle Jack got teleported into killer TV shows."_

 _"Yes. You're going to wake up on the TARDIS alone, but don't panic. The Old Girl will be able to show you what is going on in each show. It's important that you pay attention because when I escape is when your vortex manipulator will start working again."_

 _"Okay."_

 _"And no matter what, you can't take the vortex in my place, no matter how much you want to. My regeneration is a fixed point in time, I need to die there."_

 _"I understand."_

 _"Remember, Lilith, your mother and I love you."_

 _"I love you too, Dad. I'm ready."_

* * *

Lilith groaned as she forced her eyes open, head pounding. What the hell had happened?

Transmat, Game Station, Dad's regeneration.

She frantically checked her vortex manipulator, desperately trying to search for one of her companions' bio-signatures. It didn't work, she couldn't even teleport out of the TARDIS. Lilith was stuck.

She swore in Gallifreyan.

Turning to the console, she checked the monitor. It was flickering between three different shots. One showed Rose, one showed Jack, and the last showed the Doctor. All of them were unconscious.

Lilith's stomach tied itself in knots. Nothing good was going to come of this adventure.

* * *

 **The Doctor- Big Brother**

The Doctor's eyes snapped open "What is it? What's happening?" He fell out of a small spinning cupboard.

"Oh, my God!" A blond girl in sweatpants and a sweatshirt came rushing over. "I don't believe it! Why'd they put you in there? They never said you were coming." She helped him stand.

"What happened? I was…" He immediately fell over again, face first onto a rug.

"Careful now. Oh! Oh, mind yourself! Oh, that's the transmat. It scrambles your head. I was sick for days. All right? So, what's your name then, sweetheart?"

The Doctor was very unsteady on his feet. "The Doctor, I think. I was, er. I don't know, what happened?" Back in the TARDIS, Lilith flinched. That wasn't normal.

"You got chosen." The girl told him.

"Chosen for what?" the Doctor asked.

"You're a housemate. You're in the house. Isn't that brilliant?"

Over by a pink screen with a stylized eye on it, a young man in a t-shirt pouted. "That's not fair. We've got eviction in five minutes! I've been here for all nine weeks, I've followed the rules, I haven't had a single warning, and then he comes swanning in."

A dark-skinned young lady in pink shirt joins. "If they keep changing the rules, I'm going to protest, I am. You watch me, I'm going to paint the walls."

"Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room?" A mechanical voice requested over a loudspeaker.

The Doctor went through a door with the stylized eye on it and sat in a large red chair.

"You are live on channel forty four thousand. Please do not swear." The voice said.

"You have got to be kidding."

~OoDWoO~

 **Rose- The Weakest Link**

Rose woke up on a studio floor. A dark-skinned man was bending over her. "What happened?" she asked, dizzily.

"It's all right. It's the transmat." The man said. "Does your head in. Get a bit of amnesia. What's your name?"

"Rose. But where's the Doctor?"

The man ignored the question. "Just remember do what the android says. Don't provoke it. The android's word is law." He warned.

Rose frowned. "What do you mean, android? Like a robot?"

"Positions, everyone! Thank you!" A woman yelled.

"Come on, hurry up." The man helped Rose stand. "Steady, steady."

She is wobbly on her feet. "I was travelling, with the Doctor and a man called Captain Jack. The Doctor wouldn't just leave me."

"That's enough chat!" The woman shouted. "Positions! Final call! Good luck!"

"But I'm not supposed to be here." Rose protested, following the man.

"It says Rose on the podium. Come on." He said.

Rose took her place behind the podium labeled with her name. She was next to the man, whose podium was labeled 'Roderick'. "Hold on, I must be going mad. It can't be. This looks like the—"

"Android activated!"

"Oh, my God, the android. The Anne Droid." She gasped.

Light shone on the robot. "Welcome to The Weakest Link!"

~OoDWoO~

 **Jack- What Not to Wear**

"Here we go again. We've got our work cut out for us."

"I don't know. He's sort of handsome. Has a good lantern jaw."

"Lantern jaws are so last year"

A pair of droids - one tall and thin, one short and curvy - had Jack lying on an examination table. There was a rack of clothes nearby. Jack pushed himself up onto his arms warily. "Sorry, nice to meet you, ladies, but where exactly am I?"

"We're giving you a brand new image." Tall droid said.

Jack struggled to sit up. "Oh, hold on, I was with the Doctor. Why, is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"It's all very twentieth century. Where did you get that denim?" Short droid questioned.

"A little place in Cardiff. It was called… the Top Shop." Jack said.

"Ah! Design classic."

"But we're going to have to find you some new colors. Maybe get rid of that Oklahoma Farm Boy thing you've got going on."

"Just stand still and let the defabricator work its magic."

"What's a defabricator?" Jack asked. A beam shot at him that disintegrated all, his clothes. Lilith looked away from the monitor. Ew. "Okay. Defabricator. Does exactly what it says on the tin. Am I naked in front of millions of viewers?"

"Absolutely!" the two droid chorused.

"Ladies, your viewing figures just went up."

Lilith face palmed.

~OoDWoO~

 **The Doctor- Big Brother**

The Doctor was checking a door with the sonic screwdriver. "I can't open it." He said through gritted teeth

"It's got a deadlock seal." The blond told him. "Ever since Big Brother five hundred and four when they all walked out. You must remember that."

The Doctor walked over to an alcove with a picture in it. He scanned it with the sonic. "What about this?

"Oh, that's exoglass. You'd need a nuclear bomb to get through."

"Don't tempt me." The Doctor muttered.

"I know you're not supposed to talk about the outside world, but you must've been watching." The girl whispered. "Do people like me? Lynda. Lynda with a Y; not Linda with an I. She got forcibly evicted because she damaged the camera. Am I popular?"

"I don't remember." the Doctor said.

"Oh, but does that mean I'm nothing? Some people get this far just because they're insignificant. Doesn't anybody notice me?" Lynda with a Y looked legitimately worried.

"No, you're… you're nice. You're sweet. Everybody thinks you're sweet."

Lynda smiled. "Oh, is that right? Is that what I am? Oh, no one's ever told me that before. Am I sweet? Really?"

"Yeah." the Doctor nodded. "Dead sweet."

"Thank you."

He looked over his shoulder and frowned. "It's a wall. Isn't there supposed to be a garden out there or something?"

"Don't be daft. No one's got a garden anymore." Lynda said. "Who's got a garden? Don't tell me you've got a garden."

"No, I've just got the TARDIS." the Doctor said absently. His eyes widened. "I remember."

"That's the amnesia!" Lynda cheered. "So what happened? Where did they get you?"

"We'd just left Raxacoricofallapatorius. Then we went to Kyoto. That's right, Japan in 1336, and we only just escaped. We were together, we were laughing, and then there was this light, this white light coming through the walls, and then… and then I woke up here."

"Yeah, that's the transmat beam. That's how they pick the housemates." Lynda explained.

The Doctor was silent for a moment. "Oh, Lynda with a Y. Sweet little Lynda. It's worse than that. I'm not just a passing traveller. No stupid little transmat gets inside my ship. That beam was fifteen million times more powerful, which means this isn't just a game. There's something else going on."

He went over to one of the eyes on the walls, which Lilith assumed were cameras. "Well, here's the latest update from the Big Brother house. I'm getting out. I'm going to find my friends, and then I'm going to find you."

~OoDWoO~

 **Rose- The Weakest Link**

"Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen. Thank you, people. Transmitting in twelve, eleven, ten…"

Rose tried to protest again. "But I need to find the Doc—"

"Just shut up and play the game." Roderick snapped.

"Seven, six…"

"All right, then. What the hell, I'm going to play to win!" Rose decided.

"Three, and cue!"

Anne Droid started up. "Let's play The Weakest Link. Start the clock. Agorax, the name of which basic food stuff is an anagram of the word 'beard'?"

"Bread." A man answered.

"Correct. Fitch, in the Pan Traffic Calendar, which month comes after Hoob?"

"Is it Clavadoe?" A woman replied.

"No, Pandoff. Rose, in maths, what is 258 minus 158?"

"One hundred!" declared Rose.

"Correct. Roderick."

Roderick stood up straighter. "Bank."

"Which letter of the alphabet appears in the word dangle but not in the word gland?"

"E." He responded.

"Correct. Colleen, in social security, what D is the name of the payment given to Martian Drones?"

"Default." Another woman said.

"Correct. Broff, the Great Cobalt Pyramid is built on the remains of which famous Old Earth Institute?"

"Er, Touchdown?" Another man guessed.

Rose giggled and Lilith rolled her eyes.

"No, Torchwood. Agorax, in language, all five examples of which type of letter appear in the word facetious?"

"Vowels." The first man said.

"Correct. Fitch, in biology, which blood cells contain iron? Red or white?"

"White."

"No, red. Rose, in the holovid series 'Jupiter Rising', the Grexnik is married to whom?"

"How should I know?" Rose laughed. Lilith cringed.

"No, the correct answer is Lord Drayvole. "Rodrick, in maths, what is nine squared?"

Lilith bit her lip. Things were not boding well for her mother.

~OoDWoO~

 **Jack- What Not to Wear**

Jack was posing for the two android in a new outfit.

"It's the buccaneer look. Little dash of pirate and just a tweak of President Schwarzenegger." Tall droid said.

"Er, not sure about the vest. What about a little bit of color to lift it?" Jack suggested.

"Absolutely not." Short droid chided. "Never wear black with color. It makes the color look cheap and the black look boring. Now, let's talk jackets."

"I kind of like the first one." The captain commented.

"No, that's a bit too much Hell's Angel. I think I like the shorter one. Look, waist length, nice and slimming, shows off the bum."

Jack shrugged. "Works for me."

"Once we've got an outfit, we can look at the face. Ever thought about cosmetic surgery?"

"I've considered it, yeah. A little lift around the eyes. tighten up the jaw line. What do you think?"

"Oh, let's have a bit more ambition. Let's do something cutting edge."

Lilith noticed that the taller droid had exchanged its forearm for a chainsaw. Uh oh.

~OoDWoO~

 **Rose- The Weakest Link**

"So, Rose," the Anne Droid turned to her. "What do you actually do?"

"I just travel about a bit." Rose shrugged. "Bit of a tourist, I suppose."

"Another way of saying unemployed."

Rose frowned. "No."

"Have you got a job?"

"Well, not really, no, but—"

"Then you are unemployed. And yet, you've still got enough money to buy peroxide. Why Fitch?"

"Er, I think she got a few of the questions wrong, that's all." Rose said, a bit miffed about the peroxide comment.

"Oh, you'd know all about that."

"Well, yeah, but I can't vote for myself, so it had to be Fitch." Fitch was sobbing silently. Rose looked at her, confused. "I'm sorry, that's the game. That's how it works. I had to vote for someone."

"Let me try again." Fitch pleaded. "It was the lights and everything. I couldn't think."

"In fact," the Anne Droid said. "With three answers wrong, Broff was the weakest link in that round, but it's votes that count."

"I'm sorry. Please. Oh God, help me!" Fitch cried.

"Fitch you are the weakest link. Goodbye!" A barrel came out of Anne's mouth and a beam disintegrated Fitch.

"And we've gone to the adverts." The floor manager announced. "Back in three minutes."

Rose stared at the place where the woman had been only moments before. "What's that? What's just happened?"

"She was the weakest link," Roderick explained. "She gets disintegrated. Blasted into atoms."

"But I voted for her." She said disbelievingly. "Oh, my. This is sick. All of you, you're just sick! I'm not playing this."

"I'm not playing!" the young man called Broff yelled. "I can't do it. I'm not. Please, somebody let me out of here."

The Anne Droid came to life. "You are the weakest link." Broff ran across the studio, but got zapped by Anne. "Goodbye."

"Don't try to escape." Roderick warned Rose. "It's play or die."

* * *

Lilith's eyes stayed glued to the screen as she watched more horrors unfold.

In the Big Brother house, the dark-skinned woman was voted off. With tearful goodbyes, she stepped through the door to her death. "Evicted from life." Lynda had said. Lilith repeated the words with disgust. How on earth were these games considered legal?

Jack, to Lilith's extreme discomfort, got his clothes defabricated again. The two droids turned out to be complete psychos who wanted to cut his head off and apparently replace it with a dog head. Jack managed to pull a gun out of nowhere, at least Lilith hoped it was nowhere, and kill the droids.

By the time he had done that, the Doctor had decided to get forcibly evicted by damaging a camera with the sonic. It proved to be a good escape plan, as the disintegrator beam didn't go off. He offered Lynda his hand and they exited the house together.

When I escape is when your vortex manipulator will start working again.

Yes!

Lilith pressed a button on the tech on her wrist and was transported to the Doctor's side. "Uncle!" she cried, throwing her arms around him in a hug that he immediately reciprocated.

"You're safe." He breathed.

She pulled back and looked at him with worried, chocolate colored eyes. "No. None of us are."


	27. Bad Wolf Part 2

"Uncle."

"You're safe."

"No. None of us are."

"What do you mean 'none of us are'?"

"The transmat didn't take me for some reason, I've been on the TARDIS trying to fix my vortex manipulator. Uncle, they were about to cut Jack's head off with a freaking chainsaw!"

The Doctor looked around. "Hold on, we've been here before. This is Satellite Five." He frowned. "No guards. That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth." He opened another door and they went through.

"No one's called it Satellite Five in ages. It's the Game Station now." Lynda said. "Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."

"A hundred years exactly." the Doctor said, still busy with the sonic. "It's the year 200,100. We was here before, Floor one three nine. The Satellite was broadcasting news channels back then. Had a bit of trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy. Gave them a hand, home in time for tea."

Lilith shuddered at the memory of the Jagrafess, the cold corpses at work, and the door in Adam Mitchell's head. That last one made her smirk a bit, which caused the Doctor to look at her strange.

"A hundred years ago?" Lynda repeated. "What, you were here a hundred years ago?"

"Yep!" Lilith nodded, popping the p.

"You're looking good on it." The girl complimented.

"Why, thank you. I moisturize."

The Doctor looked at the sonic screwdriver with a frown. "Funny sorts of readings, all kinds of energy. The place is humming. It's weird. This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?" he wondered.

"I don't know." Lynda shrugged. "I think we're the first ever contestants to get outside."

"We had two friends travelling with us. They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?"

"I don't know." She said again. "They could've been allocated anywhere. There's a hundred different games."

Lilith cocked her head to the side. "Like what?"

"Well," Lynda thought for a moment. "There's ten floors of Big Brother. There's a different House behind each of those doors. And then beyond that, there's all sorts of shows. It's non-stop. There's Call My Bluff, with real guns. Countdown, where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off. Ground Force, which is a nasty one. You get turned into compost. Er, Wipeout, speaks for itself. Oh, and Stars In Their Eyes. Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded." She ticked them all off on her fingers

"And you watch this stuff?" Lilith asked disgustedly.

"Everyone does. How come you don't?"

"Never paid for the license." the Doctor said absently, still scowling at the sonic.

"Oh, my God! You get executed for that!"

"I'd like to see them try." He said, buzzing the screwdriver.

"You keep saying things that don't make sense. Who are you though, Doctor, really? And who is she?" Lynda asked

"She's my niece, Lilith." the Doctor answered. "And as for who I am, It doesn't matter."

"Well, it does to me." She said. "I've just put my life in your hands."

"I'm just a traveller, wandering past. Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life."

Lilith snorted.

"So, if we get out of here, what're you going to do?" Lynda questioned. "Just wander off again?"

"Fast as we can." the Doctor confirmed.

"So, I could come with you?"

Lilith grinned. "Sure! I'm sure we could take you on a trip or two, right Uncle?"

The Doctor shot her a look. "First of all, we've got to concentrate on the getting out. And to do that, you've got to know your enemy. Who's controlling it? Who's in charge of the satellite now?"

"Hold on." Lynda said, turning on a light breaker. A sign lit up - Bad Wolf Corporation.

 _"Truly, this is the Bad Wolf scenario."_

 _"The big, Bad Wolf."_

 _"Attention all personnel, Bad Wolf 1 descending."_

 _The Bad Wolf graffiti on the TARDIS and the walls around London._

 _Mickey's Bad Wolf video game._

 _Bad WolfTV on Satellite Five._

 _Blaidd Drwg— Bad Wolf_

"Bad Wolf." the Doctor whispered.

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan.

* * *

"Blimey!" Lynda breathed as they walked onto an observation deck. "I've never seen it for real before. Not from orbit. Planet Earth."

The Earth was nothing like Lilith was expecting. It was coated in grey smoke. "What's happened to it?"

"Well, it's always been like that, ever since I was born. See that there?" She pointed to a thick patch of grey. "That's the Great Atlantic Smog Storm. It's been going twenty years. We get newsflashes telling us when it's safe to breath outside."

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows. "So the population just sits there? Half the world's too fat, and half the world's too thin, and you lot just watch telly?"

"Ten thousand channels, all beaming down from here."

"The Human Race." He scoffed. "Brainless sheep being fed on a diet of— mind you, have they still got that program where three people have to live with a bear?

"Oh, Bear With Me. I love that one!" Lynda grinned.

Lilith rolled her eyes. "You can't even keep your damn train of thought while insulting a scatterbrained species. Hypocrite."

The Doctor got back to business. "But it's all gone wrong. I mean, history's gone wrong again. This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. I don't understand. Last time we were here we put it right."

Lynda shook her head. "No, but that's when it first went wrong. A hundred years ago, like you said. All the news channels, they just shut down overnight."

"But that was me. I did that."

"There was nothing left in their place. No information. The whole planet just froze. The government, the economy, they collapsed. That was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."

"Oh, Rassilon." Lilith breathed.

The Doctor's voice dropped to a whisper. "I made this world."

Jack came running in. "Hey, handsome, beautiful. Good to see you."

"Jack!" Lilith cried and hugged him tightly. "Are you okay? I saw what they were going to do to you."

"I'm fine, Lilith." Jack assured her. "Any sign of Rose?"

"Can't you track her down?" the Doctor demanded.

"She must still be inside the games. All the rooms are shielded." Jack said.

"If I can just get inside this computer." the Doctor messed with a nearby console. "She's got to be here somewhere."

"Well, you'd better hurry up. These games don't have a happy ending."

"Do you think I don't know that?" the Doctor snapped.

Jack handed over his wrist computer. "There you go, patch that in. It's programmed to find her."

"Thanks."

"Hey, there." Jack shook Lynda's hand.

"Hello."

"Captain Jack Harkness."

"Lynda Moss."

"Nice to meet you, Lynda Moss."

Lilith groaned. "Oh, here we go."

"Do you mind flirting outside?" the Doctor asked flatly.

"I was just saying hello!" Jack protested.

"For you, Jack, that's flirting." Lilith pointed out.

"I'm not complaining." Lynda said with a smile.

"Muchas gracias." Jack kissed her hand and Lilith gagged.

"It's not compatible. This stupid system doesn't make sense." The Doctor gave the computer to Lynda and kicked the console. "This place should be a basic broadcaster, but the systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television. This station's transmitting something else."

"Like what?" Lilith questioned.

"I don't know. This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me. Someone's manipulated my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Rose is stuck inside it."

Lilith's vortex manipulator bleeped. She gasped. "I've got a lock on her! Come on!" Everyone put their hand the on the wrist tech and Lilith transported them to Game Room six on floor four zero seven.

That's where it all went wrong. Rose was disintegrated. Jack flew off the handle. The Doctor fell to his knees.

Lilith stood there frozen. Memories forced their way against the lock in her mind. She didn't remember this part of the story.

Rose, her best friend, her mother, was gone.

* * *

Lilith didn't even register what was going on around her. They were being searched, interrogated, mug shots were being taken, but she was numb. Rose couldn't have died. No, Lilith hadn't disappeared yet.

She hadn't disappeared yet.

Lilith shot Jack a wide-eyed look, hoping he had figured out the same thing. And by his expression, he had.

The guard headed towards the door. The Doctor looked up from the floor. "Let's do it."

Lilith launched herself at the nearby god and socked him in the face, then she shrew him against the wall. Jack took care of the rest of the guards. He grabbed his makeshift gun and they four of them headed to the closes elevator.

It took them up to floor five hundred and they burst out.

"Okay, move away from the desk! Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clear. Stand to the side and stay there." Jack shouted. Lilith pulled her blaster out and aimed it at the Controller. The Doctor did as well.

"Who's in charge of this place?" He spat.

"Nineteen, eighteen." The Controller counted.

"This Satellite's more than a Game Station."

"Seventy-nine, eighty."

"Who killed Rose Tyler?" He demanded.

"All staff are reminded that solar flares occur in delta point one."

"I want an answer!"

"She can't reply." A man said. Lilith and the Doctor swiveled to point the guns at him. "Don't shoot!"

"Oh, don't be so thick. Like I was ever going to shoot." The Doctor threw his weapon at the man. "Captain, we've got more guards on the way up. Secure the exits."

"Yes, sir." Jack said.

"You. What were you saying?"

The man frowned. "But I've got your gun."

"And I've got mine." Lilith snapped. "Answered the damn question."

"Why can't she answer?" the Doctor asked.

"She's, er, can I put this down?"

"If you want. Just hurry up. Lilith, put the blaster away." the Doctor scolded.

Lilith stuck her tongue out at him, but obediently tucked the blaster back in her denim jacket, bigger on the inside pockets.

"Thanks. Sorry. The Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain." The man explained. "You're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognize your existence."

"What's her name?"

"I don't know. She was installed when she was five years old. That's the only life she's ever known."

"Door's sealed." Jack told them. "We should be safe for about ten minutes."

"Keep an eye on them." the Doctor ordered.

"But that stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station. I think you're right. I've kept a log. Unauthorized transmats, encrypted signals, it's been going on for years."

"Show us."

"You're not allowed in there. Archive Six is out of bounds." A woman shouted to Jack, who was just about to open the door.

He held up the two guns. "Do I look like an out of bounds sort of guy?" He opened the door and there, in all her glory, stood the TARDIS.

"If you're not holding us hostage, then open the door and let us out. The staff are terrified." The woman insisted.

"That's the same staff who execute hundreds of contestants every day." Lilith snipped.

"That's not our fault. We're just doing our jobs."

"And with that sentence you just lost the right to even talk to me." the Doctor said. "Now back off!"

The power dropped. Lilith land the Doctor looked around.

"That's just the solar flares. They interfere with the broadcast signal, so this place automatically powers down. Planet Earth gets a few repeats. It's all quite normal."

The Controller spoke. "Doctor. Collector."

"Doctor?"

"Whatever it is, you can wait."

"I think she wants you."

"Doctor? Collector? Where's the Doctor? Where are they?"

The Doctor ran up to the Controller. "I'm the Doctor. I'm here."

"Can't see. I'm blind." The Controller said. "So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw you. You and your niece."

"What do you want?" Lilith asked, walking to the Doctor's side.

"Solar flares hiding me. They can't hear me. My masters, they always listen but they can't hear me now the sun, the sun is so bright." The Controller sounded panicked.

"Who are your masters?"

"They wired my head. The name's forbidden. They control my thoughts. My masters. My masters, I had to be careful. They monitor transmissions but they don't watch the programs. I could hide you inside the games. Knew that you two would find me."

"My friend died inside your games." the Doctor said.

"Doesn't matter."

"Don't you dare say that!" Lilith growled.

"They've been hiding. My masters hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth so, so, so many years. Always been there, guiding humanity, hundreds and hundred of years."

"Who are they?"

"They wait and plan and grow in numbers. They're strong now. So strong, my masters."

"Who are they?" the Doctor repeated.

"But speak of you, my masters, they fear the Doctor and the Collector."

"Tell us, who they are!" Lilith insisted.

The power came back on and the Controller went back to reciting numbers. "Twenty one, twenty two."

The Doctor spun around. "When's the next solar flare?"

"Two years time." The man answered.

Lilith made a face. "Helpful. Very helpful."

"Found the TARDIS." Jack said, running back.

"We're not leaving now."

"No, but the TARDIS worked it out. You'll want to watch this." He turned to Lynda. "Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?"

"I just want to go home."

"It'll only take a second. Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can. Everybody watching? Okay. Three, two, one." A beam came down and Lynda vanished in a puff of smoke.

"But you killed her!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"No." Lilith said, realization dawning on her. "No, he didn't."

Another beam brought Lynda back so she was standing by the Doctor and Lilith. "What the hell was that?"

"It's a transmat beam. Not a disintegrator, a secondary transmat system." Jack grinned. "People don't get killed in the games. They get transported across space. Doctor, Rose is still alive!"

Jack and the Doctor hug, and then Jack swept Lilith up in an even tighter embrace. "She's not dead. She's out there somewhere."

"Doctor, Collector. Coordinates five point six point one—"

"Don't, the solar flare's gone. They'll hear you." the Doctor protested.

"Point four three four. No, my masters, no! I defy you! Sigma seven seven—" The Controller disappeared in a puff of smoke and a scream.

The man gave Jack a disk. "Look, use that. It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

"Nice, Thanks." Jack said with a flirty smile. "Captain Jack Harkness, by the way."

"I'm Davitch Pavale." the man responded.

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale."

"There's a time and a place." the Doctor said.

"Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?" The woman cut in.

"Going way back." the Doctor confirmed. "Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."

"Click on this." Jack gave the Doctor a remote of some kind. He pressed the button and a holo-viewscreen appeared. "The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system.

"There's nothing there."

"It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission there's another signal."

"Doing what?" Pavale asked.

"Hiding whatever's out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal…" the Doctor pressed a few buttons.

A large space ship appeared on the viewscreen. It zoomed out to reveal a whole lot more of them. "No." Lilith breathed, eyes wide.

"That's impossible." Jack spoke up. "I know those ships. They were destroyed."

"Obviously, they survived." the Doctor said darkly.

"Who did? Who are they?" Lynda asked.

"Two hundred ships. More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them."

"Half a million what?" Pavale questioned.

Lilith and the Doctor shared twin looks of horror. "Daleks."

Said aliens appeared on the viewscreen. The Doctor failed to hide his rage that one of the Daleks was pointing its gun at Rose. "I will talk to the Doctor."

"Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello!" he waved at the screen.

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion." The Dalek said. "The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

"Oh, really? Why's that, then?"

"We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated."

"No." the Doctor said flatly. Everyone looked at him.

"Explain yourself." The Dalek ordered.

The Doctor crossed his arms. "I said no."

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means no."

"But she will be destroyed." The Dalek said.

The Doctor stood up. "No! Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet and then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"

"But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan." The Dalek protested.

"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death. Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor?" she said.

"I'm coming to get you." He ended the transition with the sonic screwdriver. "Come on, Lilith, we've got a companion to save."


	28. Parting of the Ways

The TARDIS hurdled through space towards the Dalek ships. Lilith and the Doctor were dancing around the controls, keeping in on course. Jack was messing around with the wiring of the extrapolator. "We've got incoming!" he warned the two Gallifreyans.

The Dalek missiles struck the TARDIS. The ship shook violently, but stayed intact. "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional force field. Try saying that when you're drunk."

"And for my next trick…" the Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS materializes around Rose and the nearest Dalek. "Rose, get down! Get down, Rose!"

" **Exterminate!** " the Dalek cried, firing and missing. Jack took out the Dalek with the modified Defabricator.

"You did it." Rose exclaimed. The Doctor hugged Rose tightly. "Feels like I haven't seem you in years."

"I told you I'd come and get you." the Doctor said.

"Never doubted it."

"I did. You all right?"

"Yeah. You?" She asked, looking him over.

He shrugged her off. "Not bad, been better."

"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack held his arms open.

"Oh, come here!"

"I was talking to him." He laughed and hugged her. "Ha, ha! Welcome home."

Lilith took her hugging turn hugging Rose when Jack let go. "Glad you're alive, Tyler."

"Oh, I thought I'd never see you again."

"Oh, you were lucky. I was just a one shot wonder." Jack said. "Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."

Lilith went over next to where the Doctor knelt, studying the exploded Dalek. "Gross." She murmured.

"You said they were extinct." Rose said. "How comes they're still alive?"

Jack joined them. "One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space."

"They went off to fight a bigger war." the Doctor stood up straight. "The Time War."

"I thought that was just a legend."

"I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."

Lilith slipped her hand into the Doctor's and squeezed. She sent him a telepathic wave of comfort, which he promptly ignored.

"There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"

The Doctor snapped into his 'deflecting cheer' mode. "No good stood round here chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbors." He headed to the doors.

"You can't go out there!" Rose cried.

" **Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!** " The Daleks all chorused and shot to the Doctor. The rays were stopped by a force field extending a good three meters out from the TARDIS.

"Is that it? Useless! Null points." the Doctor taunted. "It's all right, come on out. That force field can hold back anything."

"Almost anything." Jack amended. Lilith glared at him.

"Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks."

"Sorry."

"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Home world?" the Doctor growled, walking up to a Dalek. "The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"

" **They survived through me.** " A deep, Dalek voice said. The lights came up to reveal a large apparatus, which, on closer inspection, Lilith found to be an exploded giant Dalek casing, and a blue-skinned Dalek was happy for everyone to see it sitting there as if on a throne.

"Oh, Rassilon." Lilith breathed.

"Rose, Captain, Lilith," the Doctor said. "This is the Emperor of the Daleks."

" **You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive.** "

"I get it."

" **Do not interrupt.** "

" **Do not interrupt.** "

" **Do not interrupt.** "

"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!" the Doctor shouted at the smaller Daleks, who rolled backwards a bit." Okey dokey." He turned back to the Emperor Dalek. "So, where were we?"

" **We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured.** "

"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." the Doctor concluded.

Rose frowned. "That makes them half human."

" **Those words are blasphemy.** "

" **Do not blaspheme.** "

" **Do not blaspheme.** "

" **Do not blaspheme.** "

Lilith looked around at the smaller Daleks. "What the hell?"

" **Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek.** "

"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?" the Doctor asked.

" **I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!** "

" **Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!** "

"Oh great, just what we needed." Lilith moaned. "A Dalek with a god complex."

"They're insane." the Doctor realized. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh, the stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever. We're going."

"You may not leave my presence!" The Emperor Dalek said.

"Stay where you are." Commanded a Dalek.

" **Exterminate! Exterminate!** " The Doctor, Rose, Lilith, and Jack went back inside the TARDIS. The Daleks started shooting at the force field again.

The Doctor leaned his head against the doors. Lilith pulled him into a tight hug. 'We'll figure this out. Everything is going to be fine. We'll get rid of them.'

He held her close. 'You can't possibly know that Lilith. This could easily be the end.'

" **Exterminate! Exterminate!** "

* * *

Lilith started the engines and in moments, they rematerialized on floor 500. "Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!" the Doctor ordered the remaining three people.

"What does this do?" Pavale asked.

"It'll stop the Daleks from transmatting on board." Lilith explained. "What happened on this end? Did you contact Earth?"

"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programs."

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless." The Doctor noticed the identity of one of the remaining people. "Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go." Pavale shrugged.

"Didn't want to leave you two." Lynda said sincerely.

"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here." The still unnamed woman muttered. "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

"Oh, my God. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

The Doctor started pulling bits out of the conduits. "The Dalek plan— big mistake. Because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"

Realization dawned on Lilith. "You can't be serious."

Jack's eye widened. "You've got to be kidding."

"Give the man a medal."

"A Delta Wave?"

"A Delta Wave!" the Doctor confirmed.

"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asked.

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain." Jack said. "Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed."

"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" the Doctor crowed. "Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days?"

Lilith stepped forward. "But add me to the mix, and we can cut that time in half. How long till the Fleet arrive?"

Pavale checked the monitor. "Twenty two minutes."

Lilith and the Doctor went to work rerouting bits and pieces of the station while Jack worked on modifying the extrapolator again. "We've now got a force field so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."

"Do they know about the Delta Wave?" Pavale asked.

"They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."

"Who are they fighting?"

"Us."

"And what are we fighting with?"

"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."

"There's five of us." The still unnamed woman pointed out.

"Rose, you can help us. I need all these wires stripping bare." the Doctor said.

"Right, now there's four of us."

"Then let's move it." Jack said. "Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls." Pavale and his colleague ran off.

Lynda went over the Lilith. "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best."

Lilith smiled. "We will too." They shook hands and Lynda moved away.

Jack came over next. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye."

"Don't talk like that." Rose said. "The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."

"Rose, you are worth fighting for." Jack kissed her, and then turned to the Doctor. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." He kissed the Doctor in the same way, and then looked at Lilith, who held him at arms length with tears in her eyes.

"Don't you dare kiss me goodbye, Jack Harkness." She pulled him into a tight hug and whispered in his ear, "I love you, Uncle Jack."

"See you in hell." Jack said to them and left.

"He's going to be all right," Rose said. "Isn't he?"

Lilith smiled tightly. "He's Jack. He's probably gonna seduce the Daleks into not killing him."

They went back to fiddling with the wires. Rose was the one to break the silence. "Suppose…"

The Doctor looked up. "What?"

"Nothing." She dismissed.

"You said suppose." He prompted.

"No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"

"As soon as the TARDIS lands in that second, I become part of events, stuck in the timeline." the Doctor explained.

"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that." Rose said.

Lilith stayed silent. She remembered this part of the story. She knew what was coming and she didn't like it one bit.

"There's another thing the TARDIS could do." the Doctor said. "It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

"Yeah, but you'd never do that."

"No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it?"

Rose shrugged. "Well, I'm just too good."

"The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" They ran over to a console. He sighed and looked down.

"Is that bad?" Rose asked. "Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"

The Doctor suddenly sat up straight, eyes wide. "Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the TARDIS to cross my old timeline… yes!"

'What are you doing?' Lilith asked, knowing the answer.

'Don't interfere.' Was his reply.

Lilith watched as Rose followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, then as the Doctor came running out. He stopped, looked at the TARDIS with the most torn expression Lilith had ever seen, and then raised the sonic screwdriver and buzzed it.

The TARDIS dematerialized with Rose screaming from the inside.

"She's going to hate you for that."

"We protect the people we love at any cost." the Doctor said flatly. "No matter the sacrifice."

"That's the closest you'll ever come to saying it, isn't it?" Lilith sighed and shook her head. "Let's just get back to work."

Break

"Rose," Jack said over the monitor. "I've called up the internal laser codes. There should be a different number on every screen. Can you read them out to me?"

"She's not here." Lilith said dully.

" Of all the times to take a leak. When she gets back, tell her to read me the codes."

"She's not coming back." the Doctor told him.

Jack frowned. "What do you mean? Where'd she go?"

"Just get on with your work."

"You took her home, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"The Delta Wave. Is it ever going to be ready?" Jack asked.

" **Tell them the truth, Doctor.** " The Emperor Dalek appeared on the holo-viewscreen. " **There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek. All things will die by your hand.** "

"Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth." Jack pointed out.

" **You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?** "

"There are colonies out there. The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence." the Doctor snapped. "The whole Universe is in danger if I let you live. Do you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"

"You sent her home. She's safe. Keep working." Jack said sincerely.

" **But he will exterminate you!** "

Jack grinned. "Never doubted him, never will."

The Doctor got up and went over to the viewsceen. "Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?"

" **I did nothing.** " The Emperor Dalek claimed.

"Oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship."

" **They are not part of my design. This is the Truth of God. If you wish to know, ask the child.** "

The Doctor frowned and turned to Lilith. "Lilith? What do you know?"

Lilith bit her lip. "It's never been about you, Uncle. It's always been about Rose. You've cornered a wolf and left her with no way out. You made a mistake, sending her home."

The young Time Lady could only sit and watch the Doctor continue to set up the Delta wave and listen to the reports of what was going on. "This is it, ladies and gentlemen! We are at war!" Jack announced.

The Daleks forced their way in through the airlock on floor four nine four. The Doctor and Lilith picked up the pace as an explosion shook all of the Game Station. Somewhere down on that floor, a group of people was shooting ineffectively at the Daleks. They would all be exterminated.

The Daleks made it to floor four nine five where's they'd be met by the Anne Droid. The robot would take out two, maybe three Daleks before getting its head blown off.

Then, things went wrong. Lynda reported that the Daleks were going down instead of up. In moments, the entirety of floor zero would be exterminated as well.

"Lynda, what's happening on Earth?" the Doctor asked.

"The Fleet's descending. They're bombing whole continents. Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance. Australasia's just gone."

The Daleks made it to floor four nine nine and exterminate the last defense. They find Lynda and take her too.

"Last man standing! For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!" Jack shouted.

" **Finish that thing and kill mankind.** " The Emperor Dalek taunted.

"Doctor, you've got twenty seconds maximum!" At that moment, Lilith knew Jack had run out of bullets. Tears streamed down her face as she heard the sound of the Dalek blaster snuffing out her godfather's life.

"It's ready!" the Doctor exclaimed. Lilith rushed to his side and Daleks surrounded them. "You really want to think about this, because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies."

" **I am immortal.** "

"Do you want to put that to the test?"

" **I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator.** " The Emperor Dalek said.

"I'll do it!" the Doctor warned.

" **Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?** "

The Doctor was shaking. Lilith could see the pain on his face. She wrapped her arm around his and sent him a wave of comfort. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. "Coward. Any day."

" **Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness.** "

"And what about us? Are we becoming some of your angels?" Lilith asked.

" **You are the heathen.** " Declared the Emperor Dalek. " **You will be exterminated.** "

"Maybe it's time."

The Doctor took Lilith's hand and closed his eyes. 'I'm sorry it had to end like this.'

'No regrets.'

Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of the TARDIS materializing behind them. Lilith's eyes snapped open. Here we go.

" **Alert! TARDIS materializing!** "

" **You will not escape!** "

The TARDIS doors opened. Rose stood there, silhouetted in a blinding golden light, energy tendrils snaking outwards. "What've you done?" the Doctor shouted.

"I looked into the TARDIS," Rose said calmly. "And the TARDIS looked into me."

"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that!"

" **This is the Abomination!** " Cried the Emperor Dalek.

" **Exterminate!** " One of the Daleks shot at Rose, but she stopped the beam with a wave of her hand.

"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.

"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now." the Doctor insisted. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."

"I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the false god." Rose said, looking down at him.

" **You cannot hurt me!** " The Emperor Dalek stated. " **I am immortal!** "

"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She waved her hand and a Dalek disintegrated. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends." All of the Daleks crumbled.

" **I will not die. I cannot die!** " But the spaceship disappeared in a golden wave.

"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go." the Doctor pleaded.

"How can I let go of this? I bring life."

Lilith felt the moment Jack became a fixed point in time. She desperately wanted to go to him, to make sure he was on the TARDIS when they left, but she couldn't.

"But this is wrong!" the Doctor protested. "You can't control life and death."

"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?" Rose asked.

"The power's going to kill you and it's my fault." He said hopelessly.

"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."

The Doctor stood. "That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

"My head…"

"Come here."

"It's killing me…"

"I think you need a Doctor."

The Doctor kissed Rose. The golden energy transferred from her eyes to his, then she fainted in his arms. The Doctor exhaled the energy back into the TARDIS and its doors closed. Lilith ran to his side.

"You moron." She sobbed, hugging him close. "You're going to regenerate!"

"I know." he said solemnly. She helped him bring Rose into the TARDIS.

* * *

"What happened?" Rose asked when she came to.

"Don't you remember?" the Doctor said.

Rose sat up. "It's like there was this singing."

"That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."

Lilith rolled her eyes from her spot on the jump seat. She tucked her knees under her chin, not taking her eyes off of the Doctor. Waiting for the dreaded glow to appear.

"I was at home. No, I wasn't," She frowned. "I was in the TARDIS, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else."

There it was. His hand was starting to glow.

"Rose Tyler." The Doctor sighed. "I was going take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."

"Then why can't we go?"

"Maybe you will, maybe Lilith will, and maybe I will. But not like this." He was speaking through gritted teeth.

"You're not making sense." Rose said, standing up.

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head." the Doctor laughed. "And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with." He doubled over in pain.

"Doctor!" Rose cried.

"Stay away!"

Lilith vaulted over the jump seat to hold Rose back. "You've got to keep back, Tyler.

"Someone tell me what's going on."

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying." the Doctor explained.

"Can't you do something?" Rose panicked.

"Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick," he told her. "It's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go—"

"Don't say that." Rose begged.

"Rose, Lilith, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what?" the Doctor paused. "So was I."

Golden light burst out of the Doctor's body. It was not the change Lilith remembered. Everything changed very suddenly and, before she knew it, a familiar man was standing in front her.

"Hello. Okay. Ooh, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right." the Tenth Doctor beamed. "Barcelona."


	29. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

And so it comes to a close, we're done with Eccleston :( But on to Tennant! :) Yes, I am writing a sequel which, obviously, is just my rewrite of series two with Lilith in it. Due to my severe lack of a social life and minimal homework, the first chapter of the next story should be up in a normal amount of time. I've gotten the wifi problem in my dorm fixed So updates should be more regular now. I'm glad you all stuck with me through the ride! Review and let me know what you want to see in A New Adventure and I'll do my best to add it in!

Thank you so much for your support. Lilith and I appreciate it!

-Darkelvoriplorellion Tyler


End file.
